Filmmaker-music composer Vishal Bhardwaj recently received the Best Music Director award for the Malayalam film 'Carbon' by cultural affairs minister AK Balan at the 49th Kerala State Film Awards. The film has been directed by Venu and stars Fahad Fazil and Mamta Mohandas.

Talking about the challenges of making music for a Malayalam film, Bhardwaj says that language has never really been an issue for him. "There are language barriers but I have worked on a Malayalam film before too. That was also Venu’s film called Daya. That was 20 years back. I understand the meaning of every line and then I compose. However, in this film, all the songs were written on the tune. So, this time the barrier was not there as I was understanding the lyrics from the poets. Music has its own language. It doesn't need any other language," he says.

Venu, too, was glad to have Bhardwaj on board. "Vishal Bharadwaj's music was a very important element in my film Carbon, and I am so happy he won the Kerala state award for the best music direction. Actually, his work made a lot of difference to my film. I am so thankful to him  for really helping me out in various situations as friend, as a director and as so many things. I am really happy that he won this important award," he says.

Congratulating the filmmaker, film trade analyst Komal Nahta tweeted, "Congratulations @vishalbhardwaj for winning the Kerela State Award 2018 for best music director for Malayalam film Carbon. It''s for the first time that a Hindi film musician has won in Malayalam industry!"

To which the filmmaker replied, "Thank you so much @KomalNahta. I am so humbled by this honour. Many thanks to my dear friend and director Venu for choosing me to compose for his film. I remain a composer at heart."

Bhardwaj has also composed Bollywood tracks such as Oh Saathi Re and Beedi Jalayile in 'Omkara', Ibn-E-Batuta in 'Ishqiya' and Go Charlie Go in 'Kaminey' in the past.