Chhaayaageet #151 - “You asked me to do just the background score but I can compose songs too.”
The young musician’s phone rings. He knows the director on the other end of the phone. They quickly exchange pleasantries.
“Let's get to the point. I am directing my first film. Recently I was able to listen to your work from one of your recent films. I would like you to compose the background score of my upcoming film.”
The composer is delighted that new work is coming his way. He is not a trained musician but has been trying to break into the industry. A film here, an ad jingle there.
But why only background score? Since both songs and background compositions require a deep understanding of the script and the situation, it makes sense to have one composer for both. “I would like to compose both the songs and the background score. Is that ok?”
There is a pause on the other side before the director responds. “You see, we have hired these renowned trio composers but they are a hot commodity these days. They just don't have any dates available in the near term to do the BG.” The musician knows who the director is talking about. He agrees to do just the background score.
The meeting is set up with the director. This being his debut film, the director is very meticulous about everything. He goes into incredible detail about the movie, characters, and the various situations. The musician is also a budding artist and wants to do his best. He has one question after another. They all make sense. The music in the background has to catch the mood of each situation. The timing of every instrument has to be perfect.
The musician returns to his studio. He starts going through each scene and writes down the background score. One scene after another. After a point it becomes almost mechanical.
Oh but wait. This is an interesting scene. The female protagonist starts to have feelings for her male counterpart. This requires something different from just plain background music. How to highlight her expressions, her feelings, her shyness, and her ecstasy? It needs a song. Yes, it is crying out loud for a song.
He doesn't know what to do. They didn't sign him to compose songs. On the other hand, it feels a bit dishonest to his trade if he doesn't call it out. After much internal struggle, he decides to call the director.
He explains the situation and his thought process. “You asked me to do just the background score but I can compose songs too. I feel there are couple of areas where a song would make more sense.”
The director takes a deep pause. “I agree with you. I actually wanted a lot more songs in the film. Initially, I wanted to do a musical but it's a big gamble and this is my debut film so I didn't want to take any risks. Do one thing. Send me the tune, composition, song or whatever you come up with and I promise, I will listen to it. That's all I can commit to right now.” Hmmm, a pretty non-committal answer.
The musician decides to move forward. He gets with his buddy lyricist and comes up with two versions of the song, with a male and female lead voice.
For the female version, he has someone new in mind. She is into this whole sufi, ghazal genre. She has sung in a few films but still a new voice for the masses. He gets in touch with her and others and they finish recording the songs.
A new moral issue starts dangling now. How will the trio of composers feel here? It is kinda encroaching into their territory. If he has to survive in this industry, he cannot pick a fight with the big boys.
He decides to make a call. “Ehsaan bhai, I am doing the background score but the director agreed to listen to any specific songs or tunes suggestions I have. I came up with something but wanted to check with you if it’s ok to share with the director.” Ehsaan feels quite elated that he called to ask. “Don’t worry about it. Go ahead and share your compositions with the director.”
He sends the recording to the director. And waits.
No response for days. It is crickets. And then weeks pass by. Still nothing. The musician is now on a guilt trip. Why did he record this song? There was no need. He should have just focused on the background score. That’s why they hired him. He is also having to respond to the Sufi singer. She has been calling him almost daily. With the recent recording, they both felt they had created something unique here.
Finally the phone rings. It’s the director on the other line, “I got your recording. Sorry, it took this long. I played the songs for the producer and the lead actor. They both loved it and would like it to be included in the film. But we would like our main lyricist to rewrite the female version. Please start recording the final versions.”
Amit Trivedi composed music for the song Iktara in the film Wake Up Sid. There were two versions of the song in the film. The female version was sung by Kavita Seth, and Amitabh Bhattacharya. The male version was sung by Tochi Raina, Amitabh Bhattacharya, and Raman Mahadevan. The lyrics were written by Amitabh Bhattacharya, and the film was directed by Ayan Mukerji and produced by Karan Johar. The lyrics of the female version are written by Javed Akhtar. The songs were picturized on Ranbir Kapoor and Konkana Sen Sharma.
After Javed Akhtar wrote the lyrics with the line “barse bund bund”, Amit asked Kavita Seth to sing the word “bund” with the short matra instead of “boond”. It took her 15 attempts to get it right.
Amit Trivedi started composing music quite early in his career. He was in his late teenage years when he formed a band called Om the Fusion Band. That didn’t last for long and then he went on to compose for theatre and also did ad jingles at the same time.
Anurag Kashyap had just returned from New York and had heard a lot of underground music over there. He was impressed by it. He wanted to find out who was doing something similar in India. Shilpa Rao recommended him to meet with Amit. That's how Amit got his first break in the film Aamir. On Anurag’s recommendation, Amit got the film Dev.D. The music of Dev.D was unique and very successful. It had 18 tracks of different genres. The hits included numbers such as Emosanal Attyachar and Nayan Tarse.
Ayan Mukerji started his career as an assistant director to Ashutosh Gowariker, his brother-in-law, on the film Swades, and later to Karan Johar on the romantic drama Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. He got his break as a director for Wake Up Sid under the Dharma Productions banner. The production team decided to go with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for the music composition but couldn't get dates from them to do the background score. This is when Ayan reached out to Amit and got him to agree to do the background score.
Ayan kept their engagement options open if Amit wanted to compose a few songs. Amit grabbed this opportunity and came up with two versions of Iktara in male and female voices. Amit was very impressed with Kavita Seth’s tonal quality and her ability to sing sufi songs as well as ghazals. He pulled her in to do the female version of Iktara which became the most popular song of the film.
When Ranbir Kapoor heard the song, he was so impressed by it that he told Ayan Mukerji to give him the song if it was not going to be in the film, so that he could use it in another film.
At the 55th Filmfare Awards, Wake Up Sid received 9 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Male Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. It won 3 awards – Best Actor (Critics) (Ranbir Kapoor), Best Debut Director (Mukerji, tying with Zoya Akhtar for Luck by Chance) and Best Female Playback Singer (Kavita Seth for Iktara).
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya, Javed Akhtar
Singers (female version): Kavita Seth, Amitabh Bhattacharya
Singers (male version): Tochi Raina, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Raman Mahadevan
*ing: Ranbir Kapoor, Konkana Sen Sharma
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Producer: Karan Johar, Hiroo Yash Johar
Film: Wake Up Sid (2009)