Sachin Sanghvi and Jigar Saraiya have roots in Gujarat and are commerce students . For The duo gave up their careers for the love of their lives, music. They have teamed up as Sachin-Jigar and have has been churning out music for Gujarati and Hindi films. Jee Karda ( Badlapur ), Saibo (Shor in The City), Samjhawan (Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania) are some of compositions created by the pair. As they get ready with their latest work A Flying Jatt , which features Tiger Shroff, Jacqueline Fernandez and professional wrestler Nathan Jones, they talk about their signature style, fondness for folk fusion and having arranged music for biggies like A.R. Rahman, Pritam and Vishal-Shekhar.
Edited excerpts
Every movie has a distinct feel. What is the flavour of A Flying Jatt ?
Sachin: I think it’s a slice-of-a-life film, it’s really light. It is a story of a desi boy who is timid, shy and scared, he gets superpowers and tries to live up to them and fails miserably until he comes of age and fights the evil.
It is a fun-filled story based in Punjab which is why it excited me and Jigar as we haven’t done a Punjabi score. It has been quite a journey to create Punjabi songs which don’t sound Punjabi, yet caters to a Punjabi audience.
You both come from commerce backgrounds. How did music happen and how did you come together?
Sachin: I think commerce happened to us but music was always there. My father was a CA and I was going to be a CA like him. Jigar wanted to do his MBA. We weren't able to identify that music was our passion.
We always thought that music to karenge hi na, masti ke liye … (Music is always there for entertainment). We never thought it would become our profession. Fifteen years back, it meant a lot of courage for our parents to have that vision.
When there were no Indian Idols, when everybody was saying that they have wasted their child’s future, against all the odds, they let us identify and pursue our passion. They let us settle down. We owe all of it to our family, and now to our wives.
Jigar: I am happy about having learnt commerce, we are able to calculate our success. Whatever money we made out of theatre, we invested in building studios. We had an idea about how to sustain... Commerce has done good to us.
Before working independently, you assisted Pritam Chakraborty, A. R. Rahman, Vishal-Shekhar and others with arranging music. Tell us about the experience.
Sachin: Our stint as arrangers will stay with us all our life.
To be able to assist these people at the peak of their career, to be able to have a backseat view of what is happening and witness how they go about their business is wonderful. It’s amazing how these gentlemen depict the same typical Bollywood situations in their own sweet way.
Each one approaches the process of the song differently. If one goes for the melody first, someone goes for the production, etc.
I wanted to become Kumar Sanu when I was training to sing, until Roja (sung by A.R. Rahman) happened. Somebody like Rahman Sir, who has become an inspiration for the entire generation, is the simplest human being alive. In a certain song, he might want to play only four chords because he wants to drive a message and doesn't want to clog his listening.
He has immense clarity. He gave us a lot of perspective about how simple can be complicated and vice-versa. Each one has their unique style. Raju bhai taught us how to differentiate between a normal tune and a tune that can fit the character,
Pritam sir taught us how to be ahead of time. He treats us like his own kids. There is a father figure inside him. We always go to him when we get stuck somewhere, he is our guiding light. It’s been a very enriching experience.
Your music career started with Gujarati music. How different is Gujarati music form Bollywood?
Sachin: Bollywood is a genre by itself. Every form of music that is palatable can be Bollywood. It brings you the fame that other mediums cannot. But the heart will always lie in the folk. We have absorbed so much from the folk that the mind first thinks in the mother tongue, whatever be the situation it so happens that we are able to crack a tune better. Chunar came from a Gujarati song. There is a sad song in Flying Jatt that was first composed in Gujarati. Sometimes, I feel there are elements we absorb from the folk that stick to our soul.
Jigar: I don’t think there is any difference because that’s why we are doing music and not commerce. There are no barriers in music. Language is the only thing that’s different. The expression and the soul remains.
Do you think your association with arranging music has served as an advantage for you?
Jigar: To be an arranger only helps you show the same idea in a newer way. If we were dependant on others to arrange music for us, they would have done it like a job. We probably wouldn't have realised that the same song could have been done differently or better. Our stint as arrangers has helped us to understand the tunes better. I think it’s a big blessing.
Sachin: Anybody who is an arranger himself will agree that the arrangements become a part of the song writing. The advantage of being arrangers along with being composers is that the elements (of music) become more intrinsic to the tune. The ‘marriage’ between the tune and the arrangement becomes easy.
Was there any track that proved to be a tough nut to crack in your upcoming film?
Sachin: Every movie has a track where one gets stuck. It is about phonetics which allure us. Jigar started his whole music orientation because he learnt music from a sikh school, so the very start of his performance was gurbani. There was a situation which introduces the premise of the film, the locality, it was a celebration song. Considering the fact that we have done only experimental songs, we tried to churn out popular compositions for the film and we chalked out nearly eight songs for one situation.
Every musician has a unique style. what is your signature style?
Sachin: We don't want to commit to a style. Jigar and I don't want to say that something isn't of our genre. We always want to commit to the script and the script has to excite us. When we took the narration of Badlapur, I thought that this is it and it will be challenging to do music for a gritty, dark film. Jigar wasn't really convinced at the time because he was afraid that we haven't done anything like this and people might have a different perception and that we might fail. Then Jigar called me the next morning and said, let’s do it!
Jigar: After Badlapur, we got similar offers and we said no to those. Because, if we succumb to a style, we’ll have to repeat. We don't want to repeat.
Sachin: If there was no script, folk fusion is what we would go for.
Jigar, as a singer, your choice of songs have been so different. There’s ‘Johnny Johnny’, ‘Babaji ki booty’, ‘Paaji tussi such a pussy cat… Tell us how you choose these.
Jigar: When nobody else agrees to sing a certain song because it would spoil their kids, I sing it. There’s nothing great about that voice and song, it just works.
Sachin: I think he can laugh and joke about it, but no song gets approved easily. There is plenty soul and character in his voice. If a certain voice works for a song, then it just does.
