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Rock On! Mahadevan makes Farhan sing
Trans World Features
He is the man of the moment. With innumerable hits in his kitty as part of the music composer trio Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Shankar Mahadevan is all confident about the success of his forthcoming film Rock On! Here is the composer-singer in conversation with Trans World Features Bollywood correspondent about his projects and how he made director turned actor Farhan Akhtar sing
That was quite a surprise seeing Farhan Akhtar sing…
Indeed a surprise. We wanted to give everyone a surprise and Farhan gave his best. In Rock On! Farhan rocks…. (Ha…ha…ha).
But wasn’t that a big risk at the same time?
No it wasn’t because we were confident about his voice though Farhan initially was hesitant. But I had heard him earlier and I knew not only does he have a great sense of music but has a strong command over singing too. I must say his voice goes apt with the music and lyrics.
And that’s how Rock On! took shape…
(Laughs) Farhan knows his job well. So do we! Once we convinced him he was ready to sing. I gave him some initial tips to hone his skills and that was it. He even plays the guitar in the soundtrack and that is the surprise. It’s not easy to sing six songs but he did it. He too is excited with the outcome.
And you don’t sing this time in your film?
Oh! (chuckles). It is not about singing. It’s not necessary to sing every time. I didn’t feel the need to sing this time. But singing is something I can’t do without.
Tell me something…from Dil Chahta Hai to Rock On, Shankar Ehsaan Loy has given so many hits…Where do you place yourself as musicians today?
See, it has been a wonderful journey so far. We have grown over the years but one thing that I feel has not made us complacent is our urge to make better music…new music and fresh music. The only thing that drives us is our urge to create new things…new sounds.
So, what do you think? Is Rock On! going to be a trend setter like Dil Chahta Hai?
(Ha…ha..). That verdict should come from you. However, I feel Rock On’s soundtrack has the first true rock flavour in Bollywood and one should listen to the music.
Okay…Okay…so you three are a satisfied lot…
At least we are very happy these days. We don’t work much because we believe in doing quality work. Why will someone listen to our music if it doesn’t attract his ears?
Is that why you are selective?
I have to. I have so many other commitments. I do live shows and then there are bands where I sing so I have to adjust everything. We already feel overburdened but we genuinely love our work. We also do a lot of background score and that is one of the most difficult areas. It is time taking too because we play with the emotions of the audience…make them laugh…cry and do all the things. And we don’t take this area lightly. Since we three come from advertisement backgrounds we are more focused. What we used to do in 30 seconds, now we do for 2 hours.
Well…and that also gives you the best projects from all the big banners…
I feel we are lucky that the directors have faith in us. We have some of the best films in hand. We are working on Farhan’s sister, Zoya Akhtar’s next film. Then there is Nikhil Advani’s Chandni Chowk To China. That again has come out great and we also have the big Karan Johar film My Name Is Khan. We are completely focused.
Wow! Wow! So a lot’s happening… But what about the private album that Shankar Ehsaan Loy was supposed to come up with…
See …I was just about to say that…and you asked me. To be very honest it will be out but we are not getting the time to go for recording. We might be choosy about our work but Bollyood is a big pressure. But I promise it will be out sometime next year. But there’s good news that we have recorded a few songs for Silk and the band’s album will finally release…
That means we get to hear some good stuff from Louis Banks, Karl Peters, Shivamani and you soon?
Of course yaar… it was long over due but finally we managed to… We all are so busy with our individual commitments that we hardly get time to meet and record but this time we did (laughs).
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