From Vikram Vedha to Odiyan, Sam C.S. has built worlds with music and The Vvaan could be his most ambitious one yet

There is a reason the music of The Vvaan teaser stays with you after the visuals have moved on. The forest, the mystery, the sense of an ancient force lurking somewhere beyond what Sidharth Malhotra’s character can see, all of it gets a punch up through the alluring score. And for composer Sam C.S., this isn’t unfamiliar territory. If anything, creating music for worlds that don’t quite belong to the everyday has been a recurring thread through his work.

Before he became a composer, Sam worked extensively in programming and background scoring, including on horror and thriller projects. That early experience seems to have shaped the way he approaches film music: not as something that arrives after the storytelling, but as something that can actually help build the world.

In Vikram Vedha, instead of giving the thriller a predictable genre score, Sam brought together orchestral arrangements and Indian ethnic sounds, creating a musical identity that was as distinctive as the film itself.

Now, he brings more musical relevance with The Vvaan because this isn’t just another film requiring a spooky background score. The film is attempting to create an entirely new folklore world, one with its own mythology, supernatural forces, beliefs and rules. And Sam has already dealt with a similarly demanding brief.

For Odiyan, Mohanlal’s Malayalam fantasy-thriller set against the folklore and landscape of Kerala, Sam went looking beyond the conventional orchestra. He explored traditional ethnic instruments to give the film’s world a sound of its own, including tracking down a rare six-foot bamboo instrument played by one of the few remaining musicians familiar with it.

That is perhaps the most interesting connection between Odiyan and The Vvaan: both require the music to make folklore feel lived-in rather than merely decorative.

Sam has previously spoken about his belief that background score should carry the emotions of a film forward. His filmography suggests that he has rarely been interested in making music that simply tells audiences when to feel scared, excited or emotional. His scores often become part of the atmosphere itself.

And the The Vvaan teaser appears to be leaning heavily into that strength. Its powerful score, layered with rooted Indian musical textures and the striking use of “Aigiri Nandini,” gives the fantasy world a distinctly local identity while retaining the scale expected of a large-screen spectacle.

That could prove crucial for The Vvaan. The film is venturing into fantasy folklore, a genre still uncommon in mainstream Hindi commercial cinema and the music has to make an unfamiliar world immediately feel believable.

Sam has done versions of that before: with a thriller, with fantasy, with regional folklore and with atmospheric storytelling. The Vvaan now gives him a considerably larger canvas.

Backed by some of the country’s most distinctive storytellers, The Vvaan brings together TVF’s Arunabh Kumar, director Deepak Mishra and Ektaa Kapoor for a commercial film that attempts to take Indian folklore into a new cinematic space. While its world is rooted in folklore and fantasy, the film brings together adventure, mystery and humour to shape itself as a complete family entertainer. The ambition extends beyond the film, with The Legend of Vvaan comic book already introducing audiences to the larger folklore surrounding its universe.

Presented by Balaji Motion Pictures, a division of Balaji Telefilms Ltd, in association with TVF and 11.11 Production, The Vvaan stars Sidharth Malhotra and Tamannaah Bhatia. Written by Arunabh Kumar and directed by Deepak Mishra, with Manu Anand as DOP and Visual Director, the film is produced by Shobha Kapoor, Ektaa R Kapoor, Arunabh Kumar and Niraj Kothari.

The Vvaan arrives in cinemas on September 25, 2026, promising a big-screen fantasy folklore experience where the visuals, music, mystery and scale come together to create a world audiences will want to step into.