Sanjeev-Darshan, who happen to be the music director sons of music director Shravan (of Nadeem Shravan duo) lament to JYOTHI VENKATESH that old songs are being recycled today at the cost of creativity.
You are composing music for the biopic on Nandiji called Nandi. How challenging is it for you to compose for a biopic like Nandi?
It is for the first time in our career that we have been approached to compose music for a biopic like Nandi which is being made on a living political personality, that too at a time when producers set out to make films only on Dons or cricketers. Nandiji is an open book because generally politicians prefer to have a lot of parda around them. It is very challenging and difficult to compose for a biopic because you have to keep in mind the vibrations of the character without at the same time trying to overdo it.
Why are both of you very choosy when it comes to accepting offers to compose for a film?
It is almost 19 years since we had made our debut as a music director duo with the film Mann. Our last 4 films were big hits and had good music. We are very selective though we bring in a lot of variations in our music, like Hamara Dil Aap Ke Paas Hai, Grand Masti, Style and NH10. Our song Chil Gaya Naina was a hit though it was a part of an action film like NH 10 and the film also did 60 cr business though it was an out and out heroine oriented action film. Music will always help a film if it has the right note. Weren’t all the songs in Tezaab hits though it was an out and out action film? Arrangement may be new but we try to use instruments of yore to give the song a new style.
Why do you think that melody which used to be the forte of music directors Nadeem –Shrawan has disappeared today?
The reason is very simple. Melody has disappeared today because all the narrations for a film are in English and not in Hindi and the audiences accept what the music directors feed them. Today it is sad but true that no music director wants to take the kind of musical risks that Nadeem and Shravan used to take. Today new creativity does not at all get a chance what with every song in the past few months boasting of mostly remixes. The fact that only old songs are recycled today speaks badly of the music directors today who choose to recycle them, like for example in films like Raees, Half Girl Friend and Mubarakan.
Bakshisaab said that a music director should work according to the need of a film and not churn out stock music from his bank.
It is strange but true that your music does not resemble that of Nadeem-Shravan though you both happen to be the sons of Shravan!
You will ‘see’ Nadeem Shravan the least in our songs. Today’s generation respects the elders but we do not want to churn out music like our dad and Nadeem Uncle did. Our dad tells us not to copy the Nadeem-Shravan style of composing the songs and compliments us for taking pains to see to it that our songs do not at all resemble the Nadeem –Shravan compositions.
We did not expect that you and Darshan would compose a song like Chil Gaya Naine, for the film NH10, which was classical music based!
We got a chance to experiment thanks to Bhushanji and Anushka who produced the film NH10. We selected a singer like Kanika Kapoor who was embroiled with the image of item numbers like Baby Doll and asked her to sing Chil Gaye Naina.
Do you think that the music scenario has changed in a big way?
Yes. It is true that the music scenario has changed in a drastic way today. It took 17 years for Nadeem and Shravan to come up with a music score like in Aashiqui after making their bow with Dangal. You have to be agile when you set out to compose and keep the youth and their taste in mind. We are happy that the media refers to us as yuva music directors though we are neither young nor old.
Even we are the victims when our producers ask the other music directors too to compose for a film besides us.
Can you elaborate?
Today the young generation does not like a song which is longer than a minute and a half and you should take care to see to it that the mukda is small but meaningful at the same time.
Why do you think that though you have been here for 19 years, your career has not clicked the way it should have?
It is the bitter truth that every music director who clicks in his career today has the hands of a music company. If we have less work, it is only because we never took the help of any music company. Whatever happened with T Series and Nadeemji, we became the victims unknowingly but managed to survive. Our aim is only to focus on our work and not let any tragedy around us affect us or our work.
Go on!
We like to be kachchuas (tortoises) in our field. We believe haste is waste. We believe in churning out quality work and do not believe in quantity. We were fortunate enough to work with a senior lyricist like the late Anand Bakshi from whom we learnt a lot. He used to advise us that we should keep the situation in a film in our mind and direct a song instead of just composing it. That is the reason that we want to be known as music directors, not just music composers. Bakshisaab said that a music director should work, according to the need of a film and not churn out stock music from his bank.
What have you learnt after spending 19 years in this industry?
Our dad always tells us to understand the lihaaz of the song and only then set out to compose the music. We have learnt this with our experience of 19 years in this industry. We have composed for over 40 films till date from Mann. I think if you ask me to name five films of ours that we consider our best, we would undoubtedly name Mann, Hamara Dil Aap Ke Paas Hai, Deewane, Style and Grand Masti. In fact, we still remember how we used to bolt our doors and sit for sessions to compose the songs for Grand Masti , because we were scared of what our parents, especially our mother would think when she heard the numbers.
There was a time when Shankar- Jaikishen was composing songs for all Raj Kapoor films and Kalyanji -Anandji was composing music for all Prakash Mehra films. A time has come now when a film has songs by different music directors. What do you have to say about this trend?
Even we are the victims when our producers ask the other music directors too to compose for a film besides us. I’d say that a day will come when different directors will be asked to direct different scenes in a film. One will be asked to direct an emotional scene, one will be asked to direct an action scene and one a romantic scene. We cannot put our foot down like say Preetam and fight with the music companies, because he is a senior.
Is there any hit song of your parents that you would like to make as a remix?
We want to recreate the hit number Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahin in Aashiqui in the voices of Arijit and Shreya Goshal because it has a good romantic thought
What next, as a music director duo?
Bhaiyyaji Superhit is being readied for release. We have composed the title track for
the film. Then we are working on Dil 2 as well as Total Dhamaal for Inder Kumarji, besides Nandi and last but not the least Yamla Pagla Deewana 3.
