MUMBAI: In a male dominated industry of music directors and composers, female music composer is a rarity and pleasant surprise. The talented composer and singer, Rachita Arora, who has recently given music to the film that made to the Oscar nominations, Newton, shares her views about Newton and many other topics with Radioandmusic.
Originally from Delhi, Rachita shares, “I have a very strong theatre background and used to compose music for plays in Delhi. My brother encouraged and supported me to learn music production and moreover live my dreams by coming to the city of dreams Mumbai.”
A visit to Prithvi Theatres and a chance meeting with theatre legend Makarand Deshpande changed the course for her. “Makrand Sir liked my work and asked me to produce music for him. He later introduced me to Anurag Kashyap, who liked my music too. Kashyap later gave the first song of Mukkebaaz and weeks later when he heard my work on it, he absolutely loved it.” Rachita adds with a glee. “He gave the music score of the entire film to me”
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On her Newton experience, she says “The first time when I heard the story of Newton, I knew it was something special. When I saw the movie I felt it was both meaningful and entertaining. It was a great experience for me to work on the movie, especially with people like Amit Trivedi.”
Trained in classical music under the tutelage of Pandit Baldev Raj Varma belonging to Indore Gharana, Rachita has found it beneficial in many ways to be a student of Indian Classical music. “Being a student of classical music gives you a strong foundation and lets you explore in many ways. It has also helped me grow as an artiste and flourish as a musician.”
She is also an ardent follower of Indian Classical Music and loves listening to the recordings of the Doyen Ustad Amir Khan. From the film music genre, she admires RD Burman, A R Rahman among many others.
She hasn’t only composed music for Newton and the new Anurag Kashyap movie Mukkabaaz, she has also given the background score for 2017 hit film Shubh Mangal Savadhan. Rachita sees a clear distinction in composing songs and composing background score for a film. “Composing songs is situational whereas designing a background score is all about building emotions for the movie. The background score takes the narrative ahead and is the soul of the movie.”
When asked what she enjoys more, singing or composing she responds almost immediately “I can’t choose, both are close to my heart.”
The artiste who has performed across the globe from Kenya to Dubai, however, laments about one thing the current music industry. “While there are many festivals for classical music in our country, there is no concrete platform for folk music. We have such a rich heritage of folk music and each region has a unique flair, still, there are very few festivals that promote folk music. We need to revive and bring forth that aspect of Indian music.”
She is very excited about her upcoming projects “I am working on a Netflix film Sacred Games, for which I have already recorded two songs. Another untitled film for Drishyam Productions which is in progress and the third one is yet to be declared officially.”
