Bengali singer-lyricist-composer Anupam Roy, who makes his Bollywood debut with Piku, on how he landed his big break.
Anupam Roy is a doctor's son who like many middle-class Bengali boys was expected to follow in his baba's footsteps. He became an engineer instead and waited to quit, from the day he landed his first job. "All my ambitions and aspirations revolved around the arts-music, poetry and cinema -- and I lived with the dream of strumming my guitar and crooning my songs on stage some day and maybe releasing a non-film album of my own," he reminisces.
It took six years and National Award winning director Srijit Mukherji's film, Autograph, before Anupam could bid goodbye to engineering, return to Kolkata and make a career in Tollygunge as a singer, composer and lyricist.
For five years now, he's been reeling out one hit after another, and naturally Bollywood was the next stop. He did sign a Hindi film but the project didn't materialise. The 33 year old was in no rush as he continued to make music in Bengal. Shoojit Sircar heard his songs and last April, when he was in Kolkata set up a meeting with Anupam and asked him to compose a song for his upcoming film, Piku.
"Bezuban started out as a love song but since we are in 2015, it went beyond that, You'll hear it twice in the film, each time in a different context, offering a new take on relationships and the world," he points out, surprising you with the revelation that he'd written this song years ago, while in college. "I simply changed the Bengali words to Hindi and presented it to Shoojitda who liked it. Our sensibilities match and he asked me to compose another song."
This time it was the Journey Song that has already been released online. It was followed by "one more" and eventually, Anupam went on to compose the entire Piku score, coming up with an unplanned fifth song just a few weeks ago. "And since I was doing one song at a time, each with a different situation in mind, there was no pressure despite this being my first Hindi film. Shoojitda gave me enough creative space, I was in my comfort zone and did what came to me naturally," he points out. And is there a song for Amitabh Bachchan to sing? "Not this time unfortunately," Anupam sighs.
He has also composed the background score which was when he got to see the entire film not once but 10...15... 20 times. "And every time I have a smile on my face," he asserts. "That's want I want for my music too. Simple, identifiable, something you'll talk about decades later."
So, is he ready to follow fellow Bengalis, Pritam Chakraborty and Jeet Ganguly into Bollywood and relocate to Mumbai? "I admire both these composers and would like my music to reach out to as many people as possible. Language is no barrier, but so far there are no offers so I can't talk about my future," he says.
Srijit Mukherji, who bagged the National Award for Best Director this year is looking to foray into Hindi cinema with remakes of his Bengali films, including Autograph, Baishe Shrabon and Hemlock Society, and some original stories too. Will Anupam collaborate with him?
"I'd love to see Srijit make his mark here. I know he'll do a good job. And I'd want to work with him. But que sera sera, whatever will be will be," he croons, pointing out that for now there's Piku, and he couldn't have asked for a bigger debut. "Composers can choose songs, not actors. But by a stroke of luck I've ended up making music for Amitabh Bachchan, Irrfan Khan and Deepika Padukone in my first Hindi film. What more could I ask for," he concludes.
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