“Composing music isn’t new to me” – Shirish on his TMK title track

By Bollywood Hungama News Network -

September 29, 2010 - 3:23 PM IST

Though Vishal-Shekhar have composed the soundtrack of Tees Maar Khan, it is producer Shirish Kunder who has stuck his neck out, taken a risk and composed an important theme track of the (expected) masala entertainer. Though a few did raise an eyebrow at this decision, especially so since Anu Malik (Main Hoon Naa) and Vishal-Shekhar (Om Shanti Om) were the sole composers of Farah Khan's earlier films, Shirish is unperturbed.

“Composing music isn’t new to me” – Shirish on his TMK title track

"I don't know why some out there are wondering the reason behind this decision. After all composing music isn't something which is new for me. Don't you remember that I had done the entire background score of my directorial debut Jaan-E-Mann", asks Shirish who had in fact played multiple roles of story, screenplay and dialogue writer of the film as well.

What he is not talking about though is the industry known fact about him ghost composing a couple of songs from his earlier effort as well. Though Anu Malik was the original composer for Jaan-E-Mann, it was being said in the industry circles that songs like 'Sau Dard Hai' and 'Humko Maaloom Hai', two of the best songs from the film, were Shirish's brain child as well.

"Let's not talk about the past, let's talk about the present", Shirish refuses to be drawn into any unwanted controversy here, "The fact is that originally the idea was to have different composers for different situations in Tees Maar Khan. We wanted to do something experimental. However, Vishal-Shekhar did such a great job in making four very important songs in the film. The results were great and we stuck on these songs."

However, the title theme track was something that Shirish wasn't willing to let go. For someone who had lived the film for last few years (he has written Tees Maar Khan), Shirish knew that he would be the best person to do the job when it came to getting that perfect theme track in place.

"I knew the film in and out. I thought like a writer and composer while making this decision, not as a producer. Also, I had to take my director's buy-in. When I told Farah about this, she too was game for it. She had confidence in me and pretty much liked what I played to her. Also, Vishal-Shekhar didn't have any issues either with me chipping in; they always knew that title track was to be done by me", details Shirish.

Post the decision, challenge was to find the right voice that suited the Bondisque theme that Tees Maar Khan demanded.

"It is much more than just Bond actually", clarifies Shirish, "Pick up any fun flick like Bond, Mission Impossible, Pink Panther etc.; you will always find a theme track that runs right through the course of the narrative. Tees Maar Khan theme track is on the same lines. To do justice to that, we had to get the right singer on board. This is where Sonu Nigam came into picture."

"He did an amazing job by singing in as many as 50 different voices. He has done something totally unconventional by singing in a regular male voice to imitating a Chinese girl to bring on a Western opera mood in", Shirish continues in awe of the singer, "He is someone who has to be challenged enough to get great results. Eventually we got much more than what we wanted."

Well Shirish, we would know for sure once the album is out.