From being a participant in the singing reality show ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’ to emerging as one of the most prolific composers in Bollywood, Shekhar Ravjiani of the renowned Vishal-Shekhar duo has become a name to reckon with in the Indian music Industry. The talented composer duo have changed the music scenario by introducing experimental sounds and international collaborations in the industry.
After ruling Bollywood charts with hit compositions for over a decade, Ravjiani has now forayed in the Marathi music industry with the single ‘Saazani’. The independent and romantic track composed and rendered by him is released digitally on Hungama.
In a conversation with Radioandmusic.com’s Chandni Mathur, Ravjiani talks about his debut Marathi single and the variety of music composed by the dynamic duo.
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Excerpts:
How challenging was it to compose and sing for ‘Saazani’ in Marathi?
This was like a personal challenge for me where I wanted to compose and render a song in Marathi. Ravi Jadhav, National award winning director of Marathi films like Natrang and Balgandharva heard the track I had composed and urged to pen the lyrics. This was the first song he ever wrote in Marathi. The major reason behind this track is my strong connection with Maharashtra where I have spent most of my childhood.
I wanted the end result to be such that if a Maharashtrian is listening to it, he feels that a Marathi singer has sung the song. It was a dream solo project for me. Bela Shinde the female playback singer, helped me get the nuances and pronunciations of the song right.
People from the Marathi industry have called me and told me that my pronunciations are better than some Marathi singers so that is indeed a huge compliment. It feels nice to be accepted in the new space.
You released the track digitally on Hungama. What is the kind of response you have received so far?
We tied up with Hungama as the digital partner to help people listen to and download the song. I received a lot of help and support from Hungama to promote it online. A week after the song was uploaded, we received around 18,000 hits on it.
Since it was such a natural and beautiful song, I decided to donate the proceeds to an NGO called Ma Niketan as I always believe that a girl child should be educated. It’s nice to have tried something which I had never done before.
There are reports that you and Vishal are also composing for a Marathi film.
Yes, Vishal and I have started working on Ravi Jadhav’s next Marathi project ‘Balak Palak’. It is not at all different or difficult to compose in any language. You just have to put your heart and soul into each project, making sure you do justice to the genre and the result determines your success or failure.
Your latest film Shanghai features a very different style of music. Tell us about the music album.
Shanghai is our first film with Dibakar Bannerjee. When we read the script it was fantastic, and the kind of flavour we have in the soundtrack is very organic which features a very street sound. It was really a good experience experimenting with new sounds and different kind of structures and formats. Lyrically the tracks are very interesting so it was great fun composing for the film.
The soundtrack of Kahaani broke boundaries. Who incorporated the idea of turning Rabindranath Tagore’s composition into a song?
The idea of turning Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Ekla Chalo Re’ into a song was totally the idea of director Sujoy Ghosh. We just dressed it up and arranged it to suit the situation in the film. We incorporated different church choir music into Tagore’s composition. We gave it a new flavour and Amitabh Bachchan’s vocals just added to the magic of the song. His voice was the best thing that could have happened to that composition. The experience of recording the track with him was truly enriching. He has got the most beautiful voice in the world. If I have to name the top five playback singers of today, Amitabh Bachchan would definitely top that list for me.
Music in films has changed drastically over the years. Comment
Music is constantly changing and in every decade there is something new that you hear. I am really happy with the new breed of talented composers like Sachin-Jigar, Sneha Khanvalkar, Amit Trivedi and Donn & Bann who are doing phenomenal work. With the new composers who have come out of the shell, different sound and music is emerging in the industry which is amazing. Music will always change for the best, whenever it changes.
How was the experience of collaborating with international singer Akon? Any future plans of tie-ups with other artistes?
The experience of working and recording with Akon was fantastic and we are really happy that ‘RaOne’ received a lot of accolades. We are in talks with a few international artistes but nothing definite has come up yet.
Vishal is a part of a rock band while you are a trained classical singer. How does this blend help in creating music?
I think people can recognise that through the music we create. When Vishal and Shekhar make music together, you can see how well people respond to it. Vishal is my brother and when both of us put our energies into something, it always works beautifully.
You also have your own music label VS through which you launched talented indie-folk artiste Raghu Dixit. Anything new on that front?
There is awesome talent emerging in the music industry and we are trying to get our procedures together on how to market the upcoming artistes. But before we sign anyone, we want to make sure we do our homework really well as the industry is booming with talent but we want to select someone who really deserves the extra push so that justice happens to the performer and his tracks.
Which are your upcoming projects?
We have recently composed for a mythological animated film Arjun which has just hit the theatres. It is one of the most spectacular albums that we have ever composed.
We are currently working on Karan Johar’s ‘Student of the Year’. Apart from that we are also composing for ‘Gippy’ which is to be directed by Sonam Nair and produced by Karan Johar. It is a film about 14 year old girl who sets on a journey of self discovery. The film will hit the cinemas in 2013.
