When he released his song ‘Butterfly’ on his website on October 11, Shekhar Ravjiani was confident that it would be well received. What he didn’t anticipate was how many hits he would have within a few hours of his debut Telugu single’s release. The singer-cum-music director has for the last 14 years composed several hit tracks along with his partner Vishal Dadlani. But what he really wanted to do apart from his film work was to compose songs that didn’t conform to any specifications or deadlines; something that he made just for himself.
“About a year and a half back I realised that I hadn’t composed a song for myself. For the last 14 years I’d been composing to a brief, keeping in mind the kind of film and the director’s wavelength. While I’m really happy and proud making music for films, I did want to make one just for myself… something unstructured. Besides I’ve recorded so many Hindi songs so far. Now I wanted to sing in a language that I was not very confident in,” says Shekhar.
The singer who released two hit Marathi singles last year – Saazni and Saavli – recently released his Telugu single Seethakokachiluka (Butterfly). The proceeds of the song, which also features Chinmayi Sripaada, will go to an NGO in Thane, which works for the welfare of abandoned girls. “Telugu is a beautiful language and also since I don’t know the language, I took it on as a challenge to learn and sing the song. Rakendu Mouli wrote the lyrics for the song and Chinmayi helped me get the pronunciations right,” says Shekhar, while joking that Chinmayi proved to be a hard task master. “Making these singles makes me very happy. There are no deadlines here, I can record them whenever I want to and either just keep it for myself or release it. While Vishal and I continue to make film music, these singles are like short vacations for me,” he laughs.
Vishal-Shekhar had last composed music for Chintakayala Ravi in 2008, after which they have not worked on any more Telugu films. But Shekhar confesses that they would love to compose music for more Telugu films. “It’s just that we are so packed with work in Bollywood. Hopefully we will be able to work on some more Telugu projects,” he says.
As of now Shekhar is looking forward to his live concert in the city with Vishal next week. “I love public concerts. There is a different kind of energy there. You get to interact with the audience and they sing more than 80 per cent of your songs. It’s an amazing feeling,” he smiles.
