Singles do the trick

Shekhar Ravjiani talks about the popularity of his singles and why he loves the challenge of singing in languages he is not familiar with

June 29, 2013 05:14 pm | Updated 05:14 pm IST

Shekhar Ravjiani

Shekhar Ravjiani

While most of us would love to make life simpler, music composer and singer Shekhar Ravjiani, one half of the talented composing duo Vishal-Shekhar, is bent on doing anything that makes his life more difficult right now. Which means, the man with a good command over Hindi and English, has gone ahead and belted out a Marathi single! “I wanted to make life a little difficult so I thought I should sing in a language I have absolutely no hold over! The pronunciation gave me sleepless nights. But my friend, director and lyricist for the song Ravi Jadhav, helped me a great deal,” he says. His ‘Saavli,’ a nostalgic song about one’s first love, well supported by a touching video featuring his friends Shah Rukh Khan and Sunidhi Chauhan and stills from Ravi’s Marathi film Balak Palak , is all the rage currently. >The video has generated a huge buzz on social media circuits.

“I enjoy making music. But composing to a director’s brief is different from creating something out of nothing, without a pre-defined target. It is euphoric,” he says, sitting at his Bandra studio. “I had last worked like that for the song ‘Dil Se Mere Duur Na Jaana.’ We just composed it and then Raj Kaushal picked it up for his Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi (1999). It brought back those memories.”

Last year, Shekhar released his first single, titled ‘Saazni,’ also in Marathi. If there was anything pre-decided in this endeavour, it was that the proceeds from the audio would go to an NGO. “Ravi introduced me to Ma Niketan, an NGO that looks after the needs of around 350 girls aged between 3 and 23, right from their education to their marriage. I was encouraged by the response to ‘Saazni’ and hence, ‘Saavli’ now.”

The composer-singer says that when his Sunidhi heard the song, she wanted to be part of it. As for Shah Rukh, the actor also expressed his desire to be part of it during a random music sitting for their forthcoming Chennai Express. “I immediately told my friend and most-sought-after lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya to write some Hindi lyrics to begin the song with and we filmed it on Shah Rukh while he recited them. It was as if everything fell into place. And I loved it,” says Shekhar.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.