The news of the Lord of The Rings (LOTR) star Elijah Wood's tour of India was a twofold surpise. While his visit is enough to spark excitement across cities, jaws dropped when fans heard the reason for his tour - music. Although both LOTR and Elijah Wood have a cult following in India, Wood's lesser known persona soon began to make waves. In what is his first interview since landing in India for his current tour, we discovered that Wood is full of surprises - from his passion for vinyls to his familiarity of the retro Bollywood music. So here's the lowdown on Wood's journey into music, his biggest influences, and of course a little bit about his endearing dimension of being a big hearted celeb. Excerpts:
For most of your fans, at least in India, Elijah Wood the DJ came as a bit of a surprise. Is this generally the response you get across the globe?
To a certain degree it is, especially outside the US. I suppose when people are familiar with one aspect of who you are, it's somewhat understandably assumed that it is all that you do. I've been DJing in some capacity for 15 years, but only taking it more seriously in the last five years.

Tell us about your journey into and with music and artistes who are your biggest influences?
I started DJing for fun whilst living and working in New Zealand in 2000. Those were pre-iPod days and I carried hundreds of CDs with me when I traveled and one night whilst at a friend's bar, I played with a CD mixer and started cross fading between songs. Playing music that I loved on a loud sound system for people hit me with instant joy and satisfaction. I kept it up for the years following as a hobby; DJing for friends, at bars etc. It was until six years ago, that I felt legitimised when DJ friends in LA asked me to be a part of a small collective called The Embassy. I began to play music for more people and eventually moved to vinyl exclusively, inspired by my friend and DJ partner, Zach Cowie whom I've learned a great deal from.

How familiar are you with Indian music? Any artistes you love?
Definitely familiar with Bollywood soundtrack music, with a particular love for the '70s and '80s. I love artistes like Biddu, Bappi Lahiri, Lata Mangeshkar and Ilaiyaraaja.

Will you be mixing tunes from Indian cinema in your India tour?
We've all brought a few records of Indian film music. We couldn't play in India without representing the land and its music!

In a video dated 2013, you are identified as DJ Jamie Starr while in another gig, you are identified as DJ Frodo. Could you throw some light on the story behind your stage names?
When I was DJ by myself, I don't ever use a stage name, except for when I used Jamie Starr once whilst DJing in LA. Jamie Starr is one of the many pseudonyms used by Prince, whom I'm a massive fan of. When Zach Cowie and I DJ together, we go by Wooden Wisdom, as his DJ name is Turquoise Wisdom, so it's a combination.

You have acquired a reputation of being a 'sincere human', with your involvement in a lot of causes. Tell us about the causes closest to your heart.
Well, that's very nice to hear. If you ask me to pick causes closes to me, it has to be anything related to children, such as Art of Elysium, which brings the arts to children in hospital. I also back anything related to pushing for clean and natural food production and support of local farmers. Ultimately, I'm a humanist and am endeared to all human issues.

Anything about India that you are really excited to explore?
I have never been to India, so I am excited to explore as much as I can in a short amount of time. I'm particularly excited to eat local food.

Any news on your upcoming movies?
I finished a film earlier this year with Nicolas Cage called The Trust that is in post production. Two films that I produced are being released soon and the third one is in post production.

Any parting words?
The three of us, Fitz, Zach and I, are so excited to visit India and play records for y'all!