Varun Unni is an Indian composer and singer, who predominantly composes for

television commercials A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

. He has also composed for a few feature films, having debuted with the 2012 Malayalam film '' Annum Innum Ennum''.

Early life and career

Varun Unni was born on 15 July 1989 in

Kochi Kochi ( , ), List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district, district of Ernakulam in the ...

, Kerala. He did his schooling at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Vaduthala in

and went on to graduate from engineering at Adi Shankara College of Engineering, Kalady. Although devoid of any background in films, Varun's first priority was always film music. After training at Kalabhavan, he went on to work with bands like ''Highway Haze'' and ''Flying Squad''. He lists

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, he fused elements of reggae, ska and rocksteady and was renowned for his distinctive voca ...

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, five Grammy Awards, and has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards and a Tony ...

and

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

as his greatest influences.

Film composing career

Though his debut film bombed at the box office, Varun's debut work "Ayyo" from Annum Innum Ennum was noticed. His second film with the same team failed again at the box-office. He shifted focus to composing jingles for advertisement films and associated with famous brands like Chemmanur and MCR. In 2017, he was offered the

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

film ''Kempegowda-2'', a spin-off of ''

Kempe Gowda Kempe Gowda I (27 June 1510 – 1569) locally venerated as Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda, or commonly known as Kempe Gowda, was a governor under the Vijayanagara Empire in early-modern India. He is famous for the development of Bengaluru Pete in th ...

'', the Kannada remake of ''

Singam ''Singam'' () is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Hari. Produced by K. E. Gnanavel Raja's Studio Green and Reliance BIG Entertainment, ans distributed by Sun Pictures, it is the first installment in t ...

''. The film opened to a favourable response and Varun subsequently signed more films in Kannada, including ''Kongka Pass'' with the same team. However he shifted focus to jingles until 2025, when he signed four films, each in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.

Music videos

''Smile''

In 2013, Varun produced a social cause album titled ''Smile'' featuring five singles by Shwetha Mohan as well as songs by upcoming singers

Suchith Suresan Suchith Suresan (born 24 August 1987) is an Indian playback singer in the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada film industries. Personal life Suchith Suresan was born to C. Suresan, a retired government servant and a reputed painter who focus ...

and

Yazin Nizar Yazin Nizar, also known as Yasin (born February 9, 1990), is an Indian playback singer who works in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi language films. Nizar sang the Tamil and Malayalam versions of the Oscar-winning song '' Naatu N ...

. It was released by the indie music label Tune4 Music.

''Second Rain''

In 2017, Varun Unni composed the music for the music movie ''Second Rain'' (Peyyum Mazhaye), produced and directed by Lijo Augustin, with cinematography by A. Kumaran of '' Thanga Magan'' fame. The video also featured Arundhati, who starred in the Tamil film '' Saithan''. The lyrics and video of the song narrate a tale of romance where rain acts as the predominant backdrop to important moments in the love story of a young couple. The video also features a short climactic fight sequence, for which Varun composed the background score. The song was released via

Muzik 247 Muzik 247 based out of Chennai, acquires music rights for South Indian Cinema films, mainly Tamil, Malayalam and Tulu. The company was founded in 2012 by Naveen Bhandari, and has achieved a large market share of the Malayalam film music. About ...

. The vocals were by

Shweta Mohan Shweta Mohan (born 19 November 1985) is an Indian playback singer. She has recorded songs for films and albums in all the four south Indian cinema namely Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada, besides few Hindi films and has established hersel ...

and

Ranjith Ranjit or Renjith may refer to: Religion * Anton Ranjith Pillainayagam (born 1966), Sri Lankan Tamil Catholic priest, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Colombo * Malcolm Ranjith (born 1947), Sri Lankan Cardinal of the Catholic Church, Archbi ...

, with programming by Ashwin Sivadas.

Return to feature films

As of 2025, Varun has signed films

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

and

languages. His first release of 2025 was the Tamil film '' The Door'', directed by Jaiidev starring

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in the lead role. His next was the Kannada film ''

Rakshasa Rākshasa (, , ; ; "preservers") are a race of usually malevolent beings prominently featured in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Folk Islam. They reside on Earth but possess supernatural powers, which they usually use for evil acts such as ...

'' starring

Prajwal Devaraj Prajwal Devaraj (born 4 July 1987) is an Indian actor who mainly works in Kannada cinema. He made his debut with the Kannada film '' Sixer'' (2007) for which he won the Best Debut actor award at the Suvarna Film Awards. This was followed by t ...

. Both films tanked at the box-office. His third release, the Malayalam film Azadi opened to mixed reviews, but the music received an overwhelmingly positive response. Varun was praised for elevating the movie experience to another level with his

background score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

.https://www.mathrubhumi.com/movies-music/interview/azadi-music-director-varun-unni-interview-1.10623051

Film discography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unni, Varun Living people Musicians from Kochi Indian male playback singers Film musicians from Kerala Malayalam film score composers 1989 births Indian male film score composers