Meet the man who has perpetrated an Emosonal atyachar on the charts 
By Screen Weekly, February 2, 2009 - 08:45 IST
There are no two opinions on the variegated, fresh music score of Dev D. Here's meeting Amit Trivedi, the man who has perpetrated an Emosonal atyachar on the charts
Like most young composers today, you too have a background in ad films and bands, right?
Well, I was arranging and programming for my friend Amartya, who does ad films, and I did some amount of composing. You must mention him as he has had a large role in my career. I was also a part of Om, the Fusion band, on their album.
And then how did Aamir, your first film, happen?
The story's not so simple! Aamir may be my first release but technically my first film was Dev D. Aamir was done while I was working on Dev D. Anurag Kashyap was the creative producer of Aamir and he told me that I have to do that film midway through Dev D and introduced me to Rajkumar Gupta.
So tell us the story of Dev D, Anurag and you.
At the beginning, I must say that owe this film to my close friend and colleague Shilpa Rao. It was she who suggested my name to Anurag. As you know, Anurag is a mad genius who's always been experimenting with his films and his music. He wanted a new guy for the film, with a new approach and a new sound. And Shilpa suggested my name.
We met for the first time in 2006 and I congratulated him for his work in Black Friday. On that day itself he briefed me and I gave him an outline of Dhol yaara dhol, which was the song that got me the film. Because after that, Anurag told me that he would give me whatever money I needed and told me to freak out on the songs.
And what happened next?
Well, the original story of Devdas is known to everyone, but Anurag's take was obviously different, besides being contemporary. I thought it important to watch the two Hindi Devdas-es made on the subject with Dilip Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan respectively. I went home and thought about the story, characters and situations and in six months I came up with six new-age and contemporary. tracks. When I called up Anurag he told me that he wanted to listen to the songs at Audio Garage, the studio where I work. He had a friend with him. And that friend, though I did not know it then, was Vikas Bahl, CEO of UTV Spot- boy and the main guy behind the production of the film!
Which were these six songs?
There was Duniya badi gol hai , Dil mein jaagi which was written and sung by Anusha Mani, Aankh micholi, Nayan tarse and Payaliya, written and sung by Shruti Pathak. Finally there was the completed version of Dhol yaara dhol sung by Shilpa Rao. Three of these songs were written by Amitabh Bhattacharya and one by Shellee, who are my friends who jam together. Amitabh is unique - he's come here to actually become a singer and I am going to give him a break soon. Anurag liked all the six songs and said that we were on! Shilpa, who has sung Dhol yaara dhol was present and I jumped up and hugged her and later took her out for a dinner treat to thank her.
Do you mean to say that you individually decided on the lyrics and music of six of the songs in the musical without the director's presence?
Yes, and Anurag passed all the songs as they were! When you knew the storyline and Anurag's way of looking at things it wasn't difficult. Not only that, he altered the script to fit in the six songs. The very next day, Anurag called me for a session with the entire team of the film where he had a detailed narration.
After this, I made Saali khushi and O pardesi. So eight songs were ready. But after this he told me to hang on for a while, because the script was being worked on. Meanwhile, he gave me Aamir and I spent the next eight months working only on that film. It was while I was doing the background score for Aamir that we came up with the song Emosonal atyaachaar.
The song has become an anthem like Masakali, though that is largely a metro-centric chartbuster.
(Smiles) The entire credit for that goes to Anurag and Amitabh respectively. The words were Anurag's idea, complete with the accent that made it Emosonal and not Emotional, which is what it means. It was he who conceived the quirky track and came up with the idea of using a brass band on screen.
The brass band riff is as infectious as the prelude of the 40-year-old Kalyanji-Anandji cult song Meri pyari beheniya from Saccha Jhutha.
As I said, they did all the magic. I have merely executed it.
The film has 18 tracks including the versions and remixes. That's a lot of music.
Yes, they all came in after Emosonal atyachar. And the film is a musical but an unconventional one.
What are you doing now?
I am evaluating five or six offers and I am doing Rajkumar Gupta's next film, which is an action thriller.
Speaking of Gupta's Aamir, none of the songs were exploited in the film. Does an OST album dampen the creativity in you?
I guess somewhere it does affect a composer. When you compose a song you'd like it to get due justice. This is normally what happens with OST albums in the West. But at the same time in Indian cinema, conventionally-used songs are very important. So often, especially in recent times, they are the only features that are remembered about any film, like, say, in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.
Your next film is also a niche one. What about working on mainstream music?
Well, one of the films that I have been offered is pretty much a mainstream film. I would definitely like to work in mainstream movies.
Does your approach change according to the genre of film?
Only to the extent that film music is absolutely subject-driven and director-driven, I always follow my instincts in what all I do.
That does not explain the extensive variety in your score for Dev D. Have you trained formally in music?
No, not really. But I have picked up a lot of things informally from a lot of people.
Was music in your genes somewhere?
Yes, I think so. My mom is a shouqiya singer but she's very good and very musical. And my mama had an orchestra.
And who is or are your icons?
I have always loved A.R.Rahman's music from Roja to Delhi 6. I admire his passion, his ideas and his wanting to innovate all the time.
Screen India
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Subhash K. Jha speaks about Dev D
