Bappi'da asks for more power !

The days of judgment refuse to end for Bappi Lahiri. Hardly has the composer finished mentoring duty for Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007 on Zee TV that we see him back in Filmy's Bathroom Singer as Suron ka Shahenshah.

The show that is giving a platform to untrained singers was so far being judged by Bhojpuri superstar Ravi Kissen and pop singer Shibani Kashyap. Now with Bappida joining them, there are more listeners outside the bathroom.

"The voices of the participants have improved a lot now," he confirms, while on a trip to Calcutta. But that does not take away from the frustration of quality voices being voted out by SMS. "I am against SMS voting. In the Zee show I have seen how your efforts come to naught after working on the singers for six months. Judges have no say." Bappi Lahiri still cannot forget how Mouli Dave, the girl from Houston in his Gharana who wowed us all with her rendition of Maiya Maiya, failed to make it to the final five, all because of random voting. "In this show (Bathroom Singer), I have suggested they have a wild card option to bring one of the good voices back."

As for the finals in end-December, he is pitching for Joyita Sinha from Calcutta, Devika Singh from Lucknow and Jyotika Sharma from Mumbai. "Mumbai's Gautam Banerjee also has a good voice."

The disco king, who made an appearance in Shah Rukh Khan's tribute to 70s' Bollywood Om Shanti Om, is back in business. "I am working on Nikhil Advani's Akshay Kumar-Deepika Padukone-starrer Made in China (as composer and singer for one song)." Also in his kitty are Satish Kaushik's Tere Sang (background score), B. Subhash's Jhoom and the Govinda-Priyanka Chopra-starrer Junoon. "Amanat Ali will be singing in that film," he says of the boy from Pakistan who came second runner-up in the Zee talent hunt.

Bappida has not forgotten the other voices too. So Mauli, Sumedha , Raja Hassan, the first runner-up, and winner Aneek Dhar, will all get a break in his various projects. "I have a couple of Bengali films in hand — Ashok Viswanathan's untitled film and Aparadhi, starring Prosenjit," he says, breaking into his superhit song Chirodin-i tumi je amar picturised on Tollywood's top hero 20 years ago in the film Amar Sangee.

The bejewelled Bappida feels bad that music in Bengali films has taken a beating in recent years. "Bengalis love melody. There has to be a folk feel to even dance tracks. Think of my Oori oori baba or Ami Kolkatar-i rosogolla. What do south Indian composers know of Bengali sentiment?"

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071122/asp/entertainment/stor y_8576210.asp