We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Karthik Mohan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Karthik below.

Karthik, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Interpreters Wanted, a feature documentary I worked on as supervising sound editor had a profound impact on me. 14 years in the making, the film follows the story of two brothers who served alongside U.S. Forces in Afghanistan as interpreters for over a decade. Robert Ham, the director of Interpreters Wanted, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009, where he worked with the brothers and became close friends with them. After Robert’s unit left Afghanistan, the brothers became desperate to escape the Taliban’s rise to power and they reached out to their American friends to help them. Before starting a project, I primarily look for a couple of things. First is the scope that the film gives me, to do something interesting both art wise and craft wise. By interesting, I am not only talking about grand sound design. Sound must be integrated into the fabric of the story and not just be an after-thought that follows the visual. With this film set in a war-torn country, we already had plenty of scope to get creative with the sound design. The second thing that is very important to me is the director’s vision. And that is where Robert was just amazing throughout the process. Going beyond the combat outpost, the explosions, the gunshots and the chaos, Robert was very clear that he wanted to touch hearts and minds through this story and that is what makes this film special. The film also traces the lives of these brothers from their young days growing up during the Russian/Afghan war, through the Taliban era and then during the invasion by NATO forces. That gave us a great challenge of trying to capture the essence of a country through different eras through sound. At its core, the film is a story of brotherhood and brings to the audience a very human story filled with a lot of emotion. Interpreters Wanted had its Los Angeles premiere at Dances with Films – LA in the TCL Chinese theatre and is currently streaming on Vet Tv. After one of the screenings I attended, there were members of the audience who were in tears and that, I believe, is the true victory of this film.

Karthik, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am from Chennai, a south Indian city known for its beaches, being deep rooted in culture and heritage and also as the hub for the Tamil film industry. Going to the theatre and experiencing films on the big screen has also been a major part of my life. While at college, as I started writing and directing short films at a film club, the most common complaint I received was that the dialogue was not sounding clear and realistic. I was determined to find a solution and that opened the doors to the world of sound design for me. I started recording various sounds to create my own sound library and started doing the sound design for short films. It very quickly dawned on me that good sound could highly elevate the movie experience and is a very effective storytelling tool. Being part of a workshop for Storytelling using Sound conducted by Randy Thom, Director of Skywalker Sound, was another major turning point for me. I decided to take up sound as a career and completed my MFA in Film Production with an emphasis in Sound Design from Chapman University. That prepared me to work with the best in the world and now I work in post-production sound where I specialize as a Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Effects Editor.
I have worked on a variety of feature films both in the US and in India, documentaries, commercials, short films and digital content. Some of my notable sound editing work includes projects like the big budget Indian blockbusters Jawan starring Shah Rukh Khan, Indian 2 starring Kamal Haasan, Indie thrillers At the Gates, The Girl on the Mountain, Web Series Sales are Dope and A Grunt’s Life : Season 2, the musical Long December and the documentary Interpreters Wanted. I have also worked on festival hits like Iravin Nizhal, Jigarthanda Double X, Paper Flowers, Four Samosas among others along with digital content for Samsung, Levis, Hailey Bieber’s Rhode Skin and for shows like The Wheel of Time and Hanna. My work in Las Escondidas has been nominated for a Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) Golden Reel Verna Fields Award. My work has featured on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, AMC+, PBS, Vet Tv and has also played prestigious festivals like Festival De Cannes, Tribeca Film Festival and IFFR – Rotterdam among others.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

A major part of having a career in the film industry is dealing with uncertainty on a daily basis. You never know when the next film is going to come your way and this leads to a lot of highs and lows. Networking is a major part of the business and for that one has to be attending film festivals and events and meet people for coffees and lunches. But this still does not guarantee you the next film. You can only be genuine and interact with someone to actually want to build a connection. The rest has to happen organically and as a believer in destiny I strongly feel that the films and shows I work on choose me rather than the other way around.
The Shah Rukh Khan starrer Jawan, where I was sound effects editor, had a huge theatrical release in over 10,000 screens around the globe. The film went on to become the biggest blockbuster of 2023 in Indian cinema and was also one of the most watched films on Netflix.
Not every film I work on will be on the same scale as Jawan or might not even have the success that Jawan had. Irrespective of the scale of the production or whichever language it is in, my process and efforts as a sound editor remain the same. Choosing the right sounds and layering them to create a cinematic reality and deliver an emotional impact for the audience is what gives me real happiness. As you start dissociating the sound from its image in reality, the possibilities become endless and there is no limit to what you can create. The only reason I want to do this day in and day out is because I love sound and I love the process of sound editing. And for me, there is nothing more rewarding than this. Everything else is a byproduct.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The primary goal of my job is to ensure that the director/showrunner’s vision is translated into sound. But a sound by itself has no value. The context in which the sound is used in a scene adds meaning, emotion and thus makes it a medium to give the audience an immersive experience. The process of finding and creating the perfect sound for any given moment is what makes this job highly exciting. As I said earlier, the only reason I want to do this for the rest of my life is because my happiness is attached to the process and not the end product. This brings me to a quote from legendary actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan “I don’t work anymore because I get paid to do what I like most. So, it’s like a paid holiday”. This summarizes the broader goal I have in mind. Every project, however big or small, also teaches you something. But it is essential to have the desire to keep learning and keep improving with each project. With each passing day, technology is evolving and with it the medium of cinema too. In this era of digital media, the space for digital content, commercials and other mixed media has evolved massively too. The need to stay up to date is paramount. Consistently doing that will eventually lead to setting new standards and breaking boundaries. I want to keep this fire burning much later in my career and I will consider that to be true success.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kamo_fx/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karthik.mohan.7712
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8408260/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Image Credits

E.C.Timmer Vijey Adithya Mohanraj