A partnership that’s a hit
Music composer Vishal-Shekhar show no signs of slowing down
By : pramita bose
Update: 2014-11-01 22:14 GMT
A partnership can only get better if it is seasoned with an unbreakable friendship, mutual respect and understanding and the ability to fill in each other’s spaces. Among the many duos in the music industry, Vishal-Shekhar’s hit jodi as Bollywood composers has withstood the test of time and fame. With their back-to-back projects — Bang Bang and Happy New Year —topping the charts this festive season, it seems that the two “Indiawale” had their happiest Diwali of late.
We ask them if their fifteen years journey has been sunny throughout?“We always have a difference of opinion and I guess it’s important in a creative process. Otherwise, the quality of work suffers. The thumb rule in an artistic field is to continuously emulate your last output. Then only the songs and scores will improve with time,” says Shekhar. If Shekhar has a firm grip on Indian classical, ethnic and melodic strains, Vishal is more of a hard-rock junkie. Hence, their diversity favours their combination.
“Over the decade, we have learnt so much from each other that we can now experiment to explore our strengths further. The best gain from such an amicable exchange is to turn our minuses into pluses,” shares Vishal.“Well, Vishal can confidently think about churning out a melodious Thumri these days and I often try my hand at rock and EDM numbers for a lark. We always keep our minds and options open to add a lot of weight and credence to our pile of projects,” says Shekhar with a smile.
Having groomed a host of amateur talents to find their footing in the entertainment industry, the music-directors contemplate of launching an academy someday. “Yeah, we are still thinking on that. Our objective is to float an institute in the near future but such things tend to develop over a period of time and depend on a lot of factors like logistics and finances to put everything together,” says Vishal.
“See, we are creative people, so we need agencies and administrative support to lend fruition to our plan on paper. It is still too early to commit anything officially. But a school to impart right kind of musical education has always been our priority,” says Shekhar.“We are now travelling and hearing all kinds of music. So we are waiting for an ideal time to chip in for our next playlist,” says Shekhar who declares that Pancham Da (noted music composer R. D. Burman) is their ultimate inspiration.