The Voice of Jagga
A long search for the perfect voice for Ranbir Kapoor in Jagga Jasoos ended with music director Pritam's assistant Tushar Joshi.
TWO months ago, when the search was still on to find the perfect voice for actor Ranbir Kapoor, who plays the titular lead in Anurag Basu-directed Jagga Jasoos, Tushar Joshi was asked to give it a shot. In the movie, the character of Jagga must sing to overcome his stammer and communicate. For all the musical conversations that Jagga carries out, music composer Pritam and Basu were looking for a voice whose tonality and expression matched that of Kapoor's.
During the voice testing, Joshi, an assistant to Pritam, first recorded a portion of Bad Lucky, a conversational song in which Jagga convinces a clumsy Shruti (played by Katrina Kaif) to join him on a mission. "I tried to follow Ranbir's expressions, match the movement of his lips and the pitch. It was a tough act since he mostly wears a deadpan look in the movie and expresses through his eyes. Since Ranbir has a deep voice, I tried to lower my tone to give more depth to the words, he recounts. Pritam and director Anurag Basu were impressed with his recording of Bad Lucky. However, what sealed the deal for the 29-year-old was his melodious recitation of a murder in the clock tower, the first case that the teenage detective Jagga solves in the movie.
Before Joshi's selection, Basu and Pritam had shortlisted voices of around 20 people, including theatre artistes, singers and non-singers, for Jagga. Though Joshi can't point out what worked in his favour, he does believe that being a part of Pritam's team he was better-versed with the script and the film's "overall mood. Basu in his brief to Joshi had asserted that the latter should not sound like a singer. "Basu had asked me not to follow the note and keep in mind that the character can't talk, says Joshi, who recorded Jagga's musical narrations in 10 days. He is also Kapoor's voice in the song Khana Khake, apart from rendering the solo track Musafir.
It was tough for Joshi to dub the portion where Jagga reunites with his father. "It was difficult to get the tone and emotion right as Jagga was crying while trying to speak. We went over the scene a number of times and kept replaying the scene. In the end, I also started crying. Maybe it was contagious, says Joshi. Born and brought up in Jabalpur, Joshi underwent training in Indian classical music for six years at Bhatkhande Sangeet Mahavidyalaya in Jabalpur. After his graduation in commerce, he moved to Mumbai to study audio engineering. Last year, when a friend told him that Pritam was looking for an assistant, he applied for the job. Since then, he has worked on several projects, including Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Dangal and Raabta.
Though Joshi's family members and friends knew that he is the playback singer for Musafir, Joshi had hidden the fact that he is the voice of Jagga, till the movie released. "Usually, I'm critical of my performances. However, while watching Jagga Jasoos last Friday, I was happy listening to my voice, says Joshi, who wishes to focus on music production.
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