Independent bands make Bollywood 'sound' different

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: Randolph Correia, of the relatively small electronica duo band Shaai’r n Func, has for the first time composed a full soundtrack, for the movie, ‘Saas Bahu aur Sensex’. The movie may have been a dud but Correia feels that it’s a headstart for him, since it’s his first serious exposure to Bollywood, and towards making mainstream popular music.

Though music from the Indian film industry has always been catchy, the predictability of the tracks is about to change, with bands that have focused on creating original sound coming in. “A lot of music from Bollywood sounds exactly the same,” says Correia, whose tracks for ‘Saas Bahu…’ has a lot of progressive electronic sounds instead of dance and bhangra beats.

‘Kailasa’ is another group that has created a separate Bollywood identity for themselves and like to call them the Kailash-Paresh-Naresh trio. Departing from their conventional Sufi sound, the trio is ready to bring in unplugged and acoustic beats with their composition for Sushant Shah’s ‘Dus Vidhaniya’ starring Vinay Pathak and Neha Dhupia.

“The music that we have done for the film is new for us as well,” says Paresh Kamath, guitarist of Kailasa, who have recorded their music live. “There’s a certain human element that lengthens the songs shelf life when it’s live,” adds Kamath. The trio has also composed two tracks for the forthcoming ‘Chandni Chowk to China’ that even includes a quwwali with a twist.

But not all consider Bollywood a progression, though all musicians acknowledge it the fastest way to get noticed and top the charts. “I’m not progressing to Bollywood. In fact it is a step down for me as a musician since it cannot provide any inspiration. But it is a decent money-making proposition,” says Correia, who has also produced a track for ‘Drona’.

Agrees Rahul Ram, bassist, ‘Indian Ocean’ who says, “Bollywood is not our final bastion. The filmmakers are coming to us for our sound.” The band has composed the soundtrack for the recently released ‘Hulla’ and a film titled ‘Bhoomi’ is in the pipeline. “The soundtrack for Hulla basically has one main song and three versions of it apart from the background score. But the sound for our films, be it in the past or the future, will continue being the sound that is Indian Ocean,” says Ram.