Candid conversation with Amit Trivedi

Amit Trivedi, currently riding high with his splendidly-received score in English Vinglish and the zany songs of Aiyaa… admits Bombay Talkies is giving him sleepless nights. “I’ve never shied away from challenges. Every score for me has been like a board examination. But this one is like a civil-services examination.” The composer who’s widely regarded as the single most significant Bollywood composer since A.R. Rahman, not only has to accommodate the musical sensibilities of four directors as diverse and distinctive as Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Karan Johar and Dibakar Bannerjee, he also has to ensure that the sound is faithful to the era that each filmmaker recreates in Bombay Talkies. Apparently Dibakar, Zoya and Anurag would have no songs, only background music in their short films, while Karan Johar’s film would’ve lip-sync songs. Says Amit, “Right now it’s really too early to give details. But yes, the four filmmakers would be giving their own perspective on cinema as it exists from 1913 to 2013. Some of them don’t want songs, only background music. But each one has a specific flavour and requirement. I’ve to go by those and yet maintain a cohesive structure in the overall sound of the four films.” Trivedi, who is currently working on 4-5 major assignments, is looking at taking a large chunk of time off to work on the sound of the film which would range from a ‘sound’ in the silent era to the music that came in when playback singing was incepted. We hear Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle would also be contributing to the music. So vast is the challenge for Trivedi that he at the moment has decided to say no to any more new assignments. Apparently the prolific composer has turned down offers from Subhash Ghai, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and Karan Johar. Says Amit, “It is not in good taste to discuss what I am not doing. I am kicked by the assignments on hand. They are taking me to different corners of India. For Sachin Kundalkar’s Aiyyaa I had to create a score with a very strong Maharashtrian flavour. And that included a lavni which is a tough genre to do. In Abhishek Kapoor’s Kai Po Che I had to create a Gujarati sound, including a Dandiya number. In Vikramaditya Motwane’s Lootera my music is distinctly Bengali: I’ve gone back to the baul sounds of S.D. Burman and Salil Chowdhary. Finally there’s Michael Winterbottom’s Trishna where the sound is Rajasthani. So it’s a virtual Bharat Darshan for me.” With two releases in two weeks English Vinglish, Aiyyaa, and another one Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana coming up next month, followed by Rajkumar Gupta’s Ghanchakkar, isn’t Amit Trivedi getting over-prolific? The composer is unperturbed, “On the contrary I am only working with filmmakers whom I can convince about my style of music. People like Anurag Kashyap, Rajkumar Gupta, Vikramaditya Motwane, Ayaan Mukherjee and Gauri Shinde are from my generation. We are on the same musical page.”