MUMBAI: Apart from being the son of renowned composer Salil Chowdhury, Sanjoy Chowdhury, juggles between the role of music composer and background scorer for recently released films like ‘Baby’, ‘Dolly Ki Doli’ and the upcoming Ranbir Kapoor and Jacqueline Fernandez starrer ‘Roy’. He stepped into tinsel town in 1999 when he collaborated with John Matthew for the Aamir Khan and Sonali Bendre starrer ‘Sarfarosh’. Background scoring in India is not given as much importance, but plays a vital role in either the making or breaking of a film. However, unlike his other contemporaries, he labels himself fortunate enough as he was a part of the big league, which empahsised on background scoring.
“Generally, when a newbie kicks off his career in Bollywood as a background scorer, he is just given a couple of weeks to finish the job, but I was fortunate enough as I did not get subjected to that treatment. I debuted in Bollywood, with the film ‘Sarfarosh’ with John Matthew and Aamir Khan, both of them were well versed with the importance of background scoring, thus they never laid down their terms and conditions. Also people in the industry knew my father so it was easier for me,” Chowdhury said to Radioandmusic.com’s Dhairya Ingle.
According to him it is essential to read the screenplay thoroughly, even before scoring the background. “Reading a screenplay will help the background scorer to choose the correct instrument which will match the situation. Also, for being a good background scorer you need to feel the situation. If someone is being beaten up in a film, the scorer needs to step into the shoes of the protagonist and choose music accordingly,” he explained.
Related Post
Chowdhury feels that background scorers need to put their foot down against the terms and conditions of producers. “If the scores are good, they will get work, and the ones who can, must put their foot down and need to voice their concerns,” he said. The ‘A Wednesday!’ composer sounds extremely grounded while talking about the influence of his father. “Right from the time you are born, you keep listening to music all day at home. My father would highlight the technical details of all the instruments and made sure that even I knew them. So it was tough being his son, but he has influenced me a lot,” Chowdhury explained.
Apart from the regular Bollywood projects, he has rendered the scores for an episode of National Geographic Channel that featured animals, which he says was a learning experience for him. “When you see a gorilla jumping, you need to see the mood of the animal and then score accordingly. This itself is a learning experience as you even get to experiment with different musical instruments,” he said signing off.
