He is a regular in the Prakash Jha’s stable having given the background scores for his earlier flicks Gangaajal for which he even grabbed a Filmfare Award and Apaharan. New York based musician Wayne Sharpe is back to the Bollywood music circuit with Sanjay Puransingh Chauhan’s ‘Lahore’ which is doing its rounds in the International Film Festivals and is releasing in India on 19 March.
Excerpts from the interview:
Tell us about the background score of Lahore?
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It is coming out very well and I am really I am really proud of the score as Lahore will be releasing soon. It was incredible working with Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan. I met him in America and we worked hard together to make the score right and the music is really powerful. And I have full faith that the music will do really well.
Lahore is a period movie. Have you done any research on it?
Against the backdrop of kickboxing, Lahore is the most authentic Indian sports film as far my knowledge is concerned. I wanted to have a western sound to it and highlight the action also and we had to keep Indian audience in mind along with that. We wanted to have different sounds for the action. We highlighted Lisbeth Scott’s voice and Sanjay was really keen for this music as he had many ideas to it.
When did your association with Indian music begin?
It started when I met Prakash Jha in New York through a friend. He came to my studio and he asked me to do background score for Gangaajal as he wanted a western touch to his music.
How do you manage to do background score for Indian films without knowing the language?
What I do is that the director of the film takes me through the whole film scene by scene from starting and they explain me that what is the film all about and also give me sub-titles. We just finished Lahore and the director of the film Sanjay explained me everything and that is how I get to know the exact emotions I need to add in the sound.
Has the association with Indian music changed your perception about music at large?
Oh yes, I have been very much influenced and have been opened up with different music styles. There are unbelievably excellent artists in India and it affects my score and my approach to the music as whole.
When was the first time you came across Indian music?
I have been listening to Indian music for many years and I was influenced in America. I was a big fan of A.R. Rahman and his first music score I heard was â€?Taal’ which really influenced me and change things for me.
Besides Rahman, do you have any other favourite Indian musicians?
Yes, I love the work of Ustad Sultan Khan as I have worked with him in Gangaajal – he is a beautiful singer and I like Zakir Hussain, Ravi Shankar and I had a wonderful opportunity working with Sonu Niigaam and Sunidhi Chauhan as well.
Have you used any Indian instruments for this Indian score?
Yes I have. Basically the process is that I compose music score at my studio in New York , bring all the tracks and we add the musical instruments here in India so I did lot of programming in playing and we had live instruments like drums and flutes; we had Indian choirs too.
