From making his Bollywood music debut with Aamir and becoming a breakout composer with Dev D, the past decade has built Amit Trivedi as one of the most prominent composers today. He has composed countless hits, for films like Ishaqzaade, English Vinglish, Dear Zindagi and Udta Punjab, all bearing that distinct brand of music that only belongs to Amit Trivedi.
No wonder then, that when it comes to selecting nominations in music categories at an award show, his name crops up multiple times. At the upcoming Reel Movie Awards 2019, Amit has been nominated thrice in two categories – Best Playback Singer (Male) for Naina Da Kya Kasoor and in the Best Song category for both Darya (Manmarziyaan) and Naina Da Kya Kasoor (AndhaDhun).
Manmarziyaan and AndhaDhun are the two most popular music albums of 2018, and despite being composed by the same music director, belong to completely different worlds. Amit says that he reads the script to decide the feel and sound of a movie. “I read the script to understand where the story belongs, what kind of sounds it is asking for, what are the characters and their state of mind.”
“Most of the time the sound comes from the script. As far as Manmarziyaan is concerned, it is a love story, set in the heartland of Punjab, so it was obvious that I had to go the Punjabi route. Anurag Kashyap and I took a conscious decision to not do Punjabi music the way people do it in the market, rather find a new way of looking at it. That’s what I tried to achieve in Manmarziyaan,” he shares.
The most exciting part about composing for AndhaDhun was that the lead character was a piano player. “Andhadhun’s script was amazing, and the most exciting part was that the protagonist was a piano player. I hadn’t come across something like this in a very long time. That was really exciting for me. The piano pieces I created, which Ayushmann Khurrana is seen playing in the film, were really fun to do.”
Besides composing, Amit regularly lends his voice to his own tunes. AndhaDhun's Naina Da Kya Kasoor, the title track of Aisha and Udta Punjab are among the popular songs he has sung. But Amit says it is never his decision to sing his own composition.
“I never decide that I want to sing this song. It’s the directors and producers who decide. For Naina Da Kya Kasoor, it was the director, label and the producers who wanted me to sing it. The scratch was in my voice.”
Ask him about how does he manage to maintain his own distinct sound while composing for songs, without being repetitive, and he says, “Honestly speaking, since day one, from Aamir, Dev D till AndhaDhun, Kedarnath, I haven’t thought of it like this, that this is how I want it to sound. When the song comes out, people tell me it’s different. That’s a great thing. I am not consciously doing it. I just follow my instincts. This is the way I am.”
A discussion with a film composer has to touch upon the insane number of remixes that have been bombarding our ears these days. Although he has recreated old Hindi songs for Queen (Hungama Ho Gaya) and Fanney Khan (Halka Halka), Amit admits he is not a fan of the trend.
“I can’t recreate songs left, right and center, the way Tanishk (Bagchi) does. As far as Queen is concerned, the script asked for it. It was very much a part of the screenplay. She goes to a club in Paris where an old Bollywood song is being played. That’s why we used a remix there,” he says.
“Queen was released in 2014, and I created the music in 2012. At that time, there was no such trend of remixes, and we did it as part of the script. Now, in the past 2-3 years, it has become such a huge trend, of people rehashing and recreating songs like Kala Chashma. It has become a successful formula. It’s a fad that should go away, I think. Anything that is organic is okay, like in Queen. Now they have made it a marketing gimmick. It’s become business now,” he opines.
Check out the nominees for the Reel Movie Awards 2019 here.
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