Singer Tushar Joshi and his wife, Shoumee Mukherjee, are all smiles as they warmly welcome me into their cosy apartment. Having lent his voice to Jagga Jasoos’ lead, Ranbir Kapoor, Joshi is thrilled with the musical’s positive critical reception. Directed by Anurag Basu, with music by Pritam Chakraborty, Jagga Jasoos is an adventure that narrates the tale of a teenage detective and his journalist-friend on a quest to find Jagga’s father. To circumvent his stammer, Jagga sings when he wants to speak. Joshi not only sang Jagga’s lines, but also belted out the romantic number ‘ Musafir’ and the quirky ‘ Khaana Khaake ’. Yet the singer, originally from Jabalpur, admits that playback singing was never a part of his plan.
While in school, Joshi learnt Indian classical music for six to seven years, and moved to Mumbai in 2009 to study at the School of Audio Engineering. He then joined as an assistant to Pritam in August last year, around two to three years after Jagga’s inception. He says, “I was told by a close friend to not expect to be a singer since I was just starting out. So I joined without any expectations and became the creative assistant.” Much to his surprise, he was soon chosen as Jagga’s voice.
“We were hunting for a voice for Jagga for very long, but didn’t find anyone,” explains Joshi. “But Pritam da and Anurag Basu asked me to try out. Maybe it was because I knew the script better, but my tone matched Kapoor’s,” he adds modestly. Once Basu felt Joshi’s voice was for Jagga, the singer became aware of his usual pitch and decided to avoid it. “Ranbir’s is a much deeper voice than mine, so I consciously tried to change it to match his,” says the singer.
Though Joshi started out focussing on the melodies and on weaving them together soulfully, Basu told him to do the opposite. “He didn’t want me to give my 100%,” shares Joshi. “He told me to sing casually, the way we do in the bathroom, because Jagga isn’t a singer. He only sings because he can’t speak.”
Discussing how he had to work keeping Kapoor’s performance in mind, Joshi talks about how it was tricky for him since the actor’s expressions were very subtle. “Only his eyes carried all the expressions, so I would match the throw of his voice,” says Joshi. A scene that the vocalist thought came out exceptionally well was also the trickiest for him. “The characters on screen were crying, and none of my takes seemed real. But around 4 a.m. it clicked. For about five minutes, my engineer, the only other person in the room, and I, started crying. That’s when I managed to sing Ranbir’s lines right,” shares the singer, going on to describe how the room was kept dark so he wouldn’t feel conscious about emoting.
Considering JaggaJasoos is very experimental for Bollywood, Joshi maintains that he never had any apprehensions about its musical format. “While seeing Ranbir’s performance would [only] increase our confidence in the project, great musicians from around the world worked on the music for the film,” he says. He shares how a large part of the children’s choir was dubbed in Shillong, and how other dubs were done in Nashville, London and Africa. “To create a Disney soundscape it was necessary to get textures of the music from around the world.” The eclectic music also drew from the film’s numerous locations as well as the various comic book cases that Jagga solves. “Assamese folk instruments were used in a modern way,” says Joshi while talking about the percussion elemnents in the track ‘ Galti Se Mistake ’ that incorporate the flavour of folk music.
Joshi is currently working with his mentor, Pritam, on Imtiaz Ali’s Jab Harry Met Sejal , and says that he has not met anyone more passionate about music than him: “Pritam da is always working. He sits with a guitar, and is constantly singing and composing. Just matching his passion and commitment is really tough.”
Still incredulous about his big break in Bollywood, Joshi hopes to return to putting up content for his 16,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel as soon as he gets the time. “I’d like to revive the channel since it’s been around a year since I put anything up. If I get the time, I’d love to collaborate with other artistes,” he says.
