Mithun Chakraborty’s 1982 film Disco Dancer was a bold and interesting film to be released around the time when a certain genre of cinema had already implanted its roots in the psyche of movie-goers. The film went on to attain cult status for not one but several reasons. The most prominent one being its music that went platinum in India. Composed by the legendary Bappi Lahri, all the songs from the critically-acclaimed film continue to rule people’s playlists even today.
To celebrate the legacy of Disco Dancer that turned out to be a massive success in countries like the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Middle East and Africa, the talented musical duo Salim-Sulaiman will be bringing their Disco Dancer musical in Mumbai on April 14 with a reimagined score. While the same has already seen sold-out shows in West End, London, it’s time for the Indian audience to get gripped by the retro disco fever. In an exclusive interview with News18 Showsha, Salim Merchant talked about Bappi Lahri and the Disco Dancer musical in detail.
Here are the excerpts from the interview:
So talk us through the inception of the concept of Disco Dancer Musical. In between your other music engagements, what compelled Sulaiman and you to do this? And why specifically Disco Dancer?
Why Disco Dancer? Because Disco Dancer is a very unique film which is really pushed the format of disco and the genre of disco in a very big way. Mithu Da and Bappi Lahiri for example. This film if you look has all the songs, Yaad Aa Raha Hai, I Am A Disco Dancer, Jimmy Jimmy, Auya Auya, Bombay Se Aaya Mera Dost, Goro Ki Na Kaalo Ki, so many songs. All these songs are massive hit. It’s very rare for a film to have all the superhit songs. For a musical to capture the true essence of an iconic film, it had to consist of many hit songs. Disco Dancer was perfect for that.
The Disco Dancer film is synonymous with two legendary names, one Bappi Lahiri and the other is Mithun Chakraborty. So while you were gearing up to pay tributes to these two legends, was there any sort of nervousness on your and Sulaiman’s end?
There was no nervousness. We’ve done a couple of musicals before. We’ve done a musical called Beyond Bollywood and after that, we did Umrao Jaan. And when we finished Umrao Jaan and it was successful in London and a couple of other shows all over the world, we realised that musical is a great way to tell the story of India for the rest of the world. But what about telling the story of our India and what better way to do it than to just do a musical of very popular film that has great music in it and also great dances. So we started researching and because we’ve done the genre of Kathak and mujra and light classical, we thought why don’t we try this?
What’s your early memory of Disco Dancer and its songs? How did that movie and musical score play an integral part in your childhood and growing up years as well as how it influenced Suleman and you musically?
I was eight years old when the movie was released. These are some of the first songs that I heard. And I started relating to it, relating to music. Some of the popular songs, we would start bouncing our heads and dancing a little bit. And trying to play the basslines of these songs were some of the things that I can recall from that time.
Can you recall any memories of the legendary composer Bappi Lahri?
Bappi Da was very close to me. I have worked with him on several occasions. I have worked with him as a musician and I have worked with him as a composer where he was the singer. So Bappi ji was very, very happy when he found out that we were working on it and we were bringing Disco Dancer alive on stage. He was really happy and very joyous. It is very unfortunate that he is not around right now because I would have loved to have him on the premiere. But his legacy and music surely lives on.
People who would be coming to watch the musical on 14th, what should they be expecting?
They should be expecting nothing less than a spectacular show. They should be ready to dance. They should be ready to laugh. They should be ready to cry also. They should be ready to travel in the world of the 80s once again.
After Disco Dancer Musical, which other artist or movie you would like to give tribute to?
I think it’s very hard to say right now. I don’t know whether we’ll create another film musical. I think we might write and destroy because it is a little intimidating to keep working on film musicals and bringing it to the theatres and onto the stage.
What are your thoughts on the Bollywood music landscape in the current times? And what’s your take on independent music scene that has become a parallel industry in itself?
Both are fantastic on its own. The film’s music has its own glory, own ups and downs. And the independent music has only been rising which is a great thing. Sometimes independent music starts sounding like film music and vice versa. There’s no harm in anything. Music is music. It’s hard to put it into different brackets that this is film music and this is independent. Because when a listener listens to a piece of music on any streaming platform, they listen to music and they don’t put a bucket that this is film music or independent music.
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