Moving away from stage gigs and wacky albums, rock bands have been slowly yet steadily spreading their wings within Bollywood. Bands like Indian Ocean and Jal are being approached to compose music for commercial movies.
For instance, after composing music for the controversial film Black Friday, Indian Ocean bagged Aamir Khan Productions’ Peepli Live.
“This movie, set in a small village, required music that had a rural Indian flavour and which would also appeal to the youth. We did two songs for the film. Des Mera is from one of our older songs and we created the music for Darte Ho,” says Dhruv Jagasia, manager of Indian Ocean.
Musicians who have a strong rock background have blended their style with that of popular cinema music and today are playing an important role in changing face of Bollywood music. For instance, Ehsan and Loy of the Shankar-Ehsan-Loy trio have played for jazz bands for many years and Vishal Dadlani of the Vishal-Shekhar duo has played for Pentagram for almost 15 years.
“The influence of rock music was always there, but it is only now that Bollywood is thinking beyond ‘item-number’ music. However, music directors who have a strong background in rock music sparked the trend. The movie Rock On helped rock music to reach a wider section of the audience,” says Dhruv.
It’s not just upcoming music directors, even actors like Salman Khan are catching up with the throbbing pulse of new-age music. The Kolkata-based band, Underground Authority, had no idea that they would play a vital part in the promotions of Dabangg, when they participated in a reality show.
“Salman Khan saw us performing the rock version of Urvashi Urvashi and was instantly impressed by our music. Later, Sohail Khan himself got in touch with us to do a version of one of the songs in the movie. The band will perform the full versions in the same reality show,” says Adil Rashid, the lead guitarist of Underground Authority.
Yes, the trend is catching on in Bollywood and musicians down south too believe that this practice is likely to spread. Playback singer Benny Dayal, who is also a member of Rainbow Bridge, says, “I’m glad that the commercial cinema industry is experimenting with different genres, but the sad part is that it is late. However, they are playing with big and known names. I strongly believe that this trend will inspire filmmakers from down south too.”
Rock bands are known for breaking conventions and most of them do not want to compromise with the essence of their music. “Indian Ocean will continue to make the music for which it is known. There were so many times when directors approached us and they even liked our music, but since they wanted us to apply some modifications and make our music more ‘filmi,’ we refused,” says Dhruv.
The words of Desmond, the lead guitarist of Bandish, seem to sum up the viewpoint of most rock bands today, “We would not like to be forced into doing something we don’t like. If we are asked to compose music for a movie, we would ensure that that the director’s demands are in tune with the flavour of our music.”