Play again, Shantanu---Article

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Posted: 18 years ago

Play it again, Shantanu

Shantanu Moitra recalls how he trembled with fear at Amitabh Bachchan's fury while shooting for Eklavya. (The music composer was guilty of changing the music that had been constantly playing on the sets)

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Ram Kamal Mukherjee

There's one person on the crew of Eklavya who still feels nervous at the mention of Amitabh Bachchan, and an incident that took place on the sets of Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Eklavya. That's Shantanu Moitra, music composer of the film.

Who changed the music? Amitabh Bachchan in Eklavya

The incident went thus: Amitabh Bachchan was so accustomed to listening to the theme music of Eklavya on the sets of the film that Shantanu decided to change the music and played a track from The Godfather for a change. This made the veteran star really angry.

"Amitji got angry when I suddenly changed the music from the background score of Eklavya and played music from The Godfather," says Shantanu. "He shouted at me, saying, 'Who changed it?' And I was too damn scared to confess that I was the culprit. Even Vidhuji kept silent. Later Vidhuji told him that it was me."

Why did he change the music suddenly? "Actually I had played the same music nearly 25 times for Amitji and thought that he must have got bored with it. I didn't know know that he was concentrating on the tune," he replies. "But I guess it was a kind of compliment for my music that he preferred my tune to that of The Godfather."

Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra had asked Shantanu Moitra to compose the background score of Eklavya - The Royal Guard, six months before he started shooting for the film. The music was composed and locked.

The music would be played on the sets every day to get the cast and crew into the mood. For some scenes, the camera movements were timed to correspond exactly with the music piece being played. Amitabh in particular, was enamoured by the music and used to hum it constantly.

One day, Shantanu Moitra felt that a change was needed, so during a break between shots, he played the theme song of The Godfather instead. Amitabh was so irritated by this that he demanded to know the name of the person responsible for changing the music. That's when a scared Shantanu decided that discretion is the better part of valour and avoided Bachchan's wrath by keeping mum.

In a media statement issued by the spokesperson of the film, Amitabh Bachchan explains what happened that day. He states, "I think the music is fantastic, and my body language was attuned to the score, so the sudden change in the composition was disturbing for me as an actor. Vinod recorded the music score six months in advance. This really shows huge amount of foresight and vision of the director because it says exactly what he wanted in the action of this film. And not just tha
t, he actual gave a sound to it. And we shot the action sequence, like we were doing a playback song. We played the music, and made sure that the train came to right bar of the beat of the music. And the camels went across at the right 'sur'."

* I was too damn scared to confess that I was the culprit. Even Vidhuji kept silent – Moitra

Source: http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article&am p;sectid=30&contentid=200701300258482185bf0838

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