by Roshmila Bhattacharya
The title track of B R Chopra's tele epic, Mahabharat, still resounds in our ears. How do you plan to make the audience forget that and connect with the title track of your Mahabharat that is gearing up for a big launch on Star Plus next month?
I'm trying to coax the producer Siddharth Tewary to get Ustad Rashid Khan to sing the title track. I understand that there are budgetary constraints, but while I have compromised on my fee to live out my dream of composing for the Mahabharat, I don't want to compromise on my choice of Ustadji (master).
There is no better story than the Mahabharat with a canvas of diversely different and colourful characters like Duryodhan, Arjun, Draupadi, Karan, Krishna and Shakuni mama to name a few. And I've worked really hard these last four-five months to come up with 13 grand music pieces that have the Ismail Darbar stamp, and I hope will echo as long as the Mahabharat remains in our collective public memory. It's a big responsibility, but because I've lived with and loved these characters for so long, it was easy to score for all of them.
What about the battle scenes?
Last year, during Ramzan, I composed a piece for a war sequence. Since I was up by 4 am during the month of abstinence, I'd start work at day break. (Smiles) The tune came to me in five minutes, but it took a month-and-a-half to design it. Good things need time.
You're also the music director for Subhash Ghai's Kaanchi (2013) that traces the journey of a girl'
(Smiles) Yes, Mishti, and I can promise you that she will be the next big star. She looks beautiful on screen and is a really good actress too. I have finished recording four songs for the film and am working on my fifth. It's a pleasure collaborating with Subhashji again after Kisna: The Warrior Poet (2005) because he loves music and it's always a challenge composing soul-stirring music for new faces. I'm doing another film with newcomers'this one a smaller film being made on a budget of around ' 2 crore'and it will be my guru dakshina (debt rendered) to the film industry that has given me so much in the last 14 years. I have been given the creative freedom to come up with achcha (good) score for a sasta (inexpensive) film
We're told one of the songs for Kaanchi is an item number?
Yes, an intoxicating item number that gave me thodi si pareshani (a little trouble).
Why was it difficult? You had composed a similar number earlier for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas (2002), 'Chalak chalak''?
(Smiles) Yes, that was a wonderful number made memorable by strong characters, brilliant actors like Madhuri Dixit, Shah Rukh Khan and Jackie Shroff who lived their roles, and myriad emotioms. There's pain in the song and masti too (playfulness), Devdas is remembering his Paro and is being wooed by Chandramukhi too' Devdas was an experience I cherish.
So why haven't Sanjay and you worked together again in the last decade?
I want to work with Sanjay again and Inshallah, agar malik chahe to woh din jaldi aayega (and God willing the day will come soon).
Would you agree that one of the reasons you have been out of the spotlight is because you have been too selective?
I won't say I was too selective, but yes, I believe that a film is made by everyone, and that includes not just the producer and the director, but the actors, composers and all the other technicians. We all have our expertise. I've studied music since I was a child so it's only right that I be given the freedom to say what I want and people listen to me. If you know it all, from music and dance to action and emotion, then why would you need me? You can do it alone!
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