Chennai: From Balu Mahendra to Mani Ratnam to Balaji Shaktivel: three generations of filmmakers on one stage, all because of filmmaker Shankar, who announced the launch of a new music label S-music and also released the audio of his latest production Kalloori.

The soundtrack for the film is by A R Rahman's one-time assistant Joshua Sridhar, but with Rahman's music track for Roja just being declared as one of the top ten soundtracks in the world by Time magazine, the focus was on the master musician.

"Anything which you do you have to be very careful. It's going to live for a long time and it's going to be judged. So it's also a question of how careful you are. You have to be smart,” says Rahman.

Though his mentor Mani Ratnam didn't seem particularly moved by the recognition, the filmmaker stood by Rahman's passion for music.

"Do you think it was good work, the sound track? So how does it matter if someone selects it or not? It always will be a good one. That was his first film. He did his job which always stands whether a Time magazine calls it or something else calls it. It doesn't change it,” says Mani Ratnam.

"He (Rahman) was like that from the first film. He's open to ideas It's easy to work with him because he's a very director-friendly music maker,” adds Mani Ratnam.

"I'm very happy. He's the most talented music director. We should feel proud about the fact that he's from our state and our country,” says Shankar.

While Mani Ratnam still working on his latest script after Guru, Shankar is busy with the Hindi version of Sivaji.

"We're putting effort in selecting a good dialogue writer. The dialogue writer is Swanand who's written for Lage Raho Munnabhai. After enquiring and watching a lot of films, I settled on him,” says Shankar.

As for Rahman, the maestro is looking forward to the release of his Lord of the Rings musical.

"It's been a great experience. I didn't know that I could do that in the beginning but then in the four-year process I learned a lot of things. We finished the album. I think it's going to be out probably in December. It's worth hearing,” says Rahman.

We sure will be looking forward to that one!