"Background score is the backbone of every film" - Sanjay Choudhary 
By Devansh Patel, March 26, 2008 - 16:19 IST
When a film releases, we often talk about the stars, the plot, the drama, the suspense, the romance and it's ever growing popular music. We've also seen biggies giving credit to the spot boys and lights men, from the 'chai wala' bringing 'chai' on the sets to the smallest of the technicians. But in this very exclusive interview Sanjay Choudhary, son of yesteryears music maestro Salil Choudhary, breaks his silence as to why the Hindi Film Industry doesn't recognize the background score as the backbone of any film in all major award functions. He also talks about his achievements, his past and much more.
How and when did you first decide to enter Bollywood as a background music composer?
Composition started for me at the age of 7. But the first film for which I worked as a background music composer / director was the 1996 Aamir Khan starrer Sarfarosh. I've worked with my father, Salil Choudhary who gave background music for films like Anand starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna. I played the percussion during the background score of Anand. I was just 7 back then. I then got the on-hand learning process from my father like how to make the background score. He also taught me the aspects of story reading and how to match the background score with the screenplay of the film. To learn to make the background score is a completely different art and it runs parallel to the screenplay.
My father, Salil Choudhary, gave background music for Anand and I played the percussion for it back then
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What changes have you seen taking place in the background score or music in general over the years?
Composing background score requires melody and doing the arrangements. But that is according to the situation of a particular scene I'm looking at. But in the early days, song compositions were done on situations, where the situation was created as a screenplay. Today, there is no particular situation created for a song. The song is just composed, the director selects the song and then decides on the situation like where the song can be placed or used in the film. There are many compositions of my father's background score, which were then turned into famous songs during his time.
Do you at all edit the background score?
I try and get into the scene and chat to my director as to what thought he has in his mind. I put my thought together and then we see how close we come in our level of thinking. I then create that into the score and arrange it according to whatever instrumentation is required for that particular sequence.
What is your style?
The whole thought process of scoring the background music is very different. I'm very screenplay oriented, story oriented and character oriented which now-a-days is not taken into consideration. My background compositions are not to be heard in the film but it has to be felt. I create a subtle background score, which takes the film forward, and then suddenly you realize that there was a score behind. Right from Sarfarosh till now, I have a different style in creating background score.
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My background compositions are not to be heard in the film but it has to be felt. I create a subtle background score, which takes the film forward.
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Is it challenging enough just like what the music directors' job is?
Background score is the backbone of any film but very few from our Hindi Film Industry agree to it. The best thing about creating background music for any film is that you have complete freedom to choose and experiment with the score which you create. That makes my job challenging because we come up with something new all the time.
Which directors have you enjoyed working with?
There are certain directors who are very particular about their films' background score. They shoot their film with the thought process of the background score in their mind. Like Jab We Met, the film that I worked on and in my forthcoming Samir Karnik film Heroes. These directors give a lot of importance to background score until the whole film is over. They know what they want and what they can get from me. So it makes our job more exciting and easy.
Are you given any specific timeline or deadline to deliver your final product?
That depends on director to director. Some of them want it in a fortnight because they don't have time and that in turn becomes tedious for us. I like giving it a thought, make notifications of the scenes and then take about 20 to 25 days to complete the score.
Any particular thought you'd like to share with us what I may have missed out on?
I would like to send across this message through Bollywood Hungama that I am sad that the Hindi Film Industry have recognized the background music as one of the technical awards in all major award functions. That's not done. I wonder why the music director category is not considered as a technical one? Music, be it any kind, should be treated on an equal level.
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I like giving the background score a thought, make notifications of the scenes and then take about 20 to 25 days to complete the score.
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What has been your favourite background score you've composed and what's next in the pipeline?
My favourite background composition has to be my first film Sarfarosh. Then the recent Jab We Met. I also liked Zinda, Chocolate, and Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal because all three were experimental films. We've used hip-hop, rap, Indian, Western, classical, etc. You name it and we have used every bit of it in our background music. That was different. Right now, I'm working on Samir Karnik's film Heroes and will be soon starting Sunil Shetty's production film called EMI staring Sanjay Dutt. Another film I'm really looking forward to is Wednesday, a UTV production directed by Neeraj Pandey staring Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher. I've done my best work for that film so far and it's due for release in April or May.
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Mera Bharat Mahan is now Heroes
