Sangeet Naukri Ghusanewala, my boss at the Ullu Banao music placement agency, stormed into the office carrying a vinyl record player, a fancy laptop and loads of wires. His shirt was shiny enough to compel his pet monkey Bandar Bhai don a pair of dark sun glasses. “What’s new, boss? And why are you scratching yourself all over your face?” I asked, expecting yet another silly reply. Ghusanewala glared at me, and said, “Yo Kansur, scratching is a technique used by all disc jockeys. That’s what I am practising. If you haven’t got it yet, I am making a film on the DJ and pub culture in India.”
Celebrating EDM
I told him that hip-hop was the latest fad after the success of Gully Boy , and asked whether his film was inspired by it. He barked, “What do you mean inspired? I had this idea two decades ago when DJs Akbar Sami, Whosane and Suketu were still learning. I want to prove that today, Indian EDM is bigger than rap. But because of Gully Boy my three-year-old nephew is doing rap versions of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and ‘ Chandamama ’.” His secretary Bulbul was completely confused. She interrupted, “l don’t get it. These are nursery rhymes not idioms. What’s the connection with rap?” Bandar Bhai stopped her, “Idiot, it’s not idiom but EDM. Electronic Dance Music. You need a rap on your knuckles.” Ghusanewala took over, “Bulbul, get me a list of top 10 Indian DJs and work on the cast. We should mix the life stories of seven people to create our main character. Not stick to one Divine or one Naezy like those Gully Boy people. Kansur, begin working on the script. It should have a rags to riches story, love triangle element, revenge, business rivalry, a scathing attack on drug culture, celebrity lifestyle, parents opposing the new generation... Lots of josh , yo.” Bandar Bhai couldn’t resist asking, “Should there be any music at all?”
Scripting for success
As ordered, we met the next morning with a game plan and some ideas. Bulbul said the main character DJ Chaat Masala would combine the lives of Nucleya, Nikhil Chinappa, Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, the DJ of any Bollywood pub in Bandra, a dandiya specialist and a local wedding music hack. To score a tactical victory, she suggested casting Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone in the lead.
I suggested that the climax would involve a war of DJs set in a Goan festival called ‘ Sooraj Jala ’, a tribute to the annual Sunburn festival. If Gully Boy had 19 music directors, we would have 38. The music would have trance, techno, house, dubstep, ambient and various styles Ghusanewala had never heard of. And since all the DJs kept saying. ‘Yo!’, our main song would be a dance version of the ancient Dev Anand hit ‘ Yeh Zindagi Hai Yo Yo ’.
Ghusanewala was ecstatic. With a Mogambo-like expression, he said, “We have a winner. We must release this before they start the Gully Boy sequel. But the important question is, ‘What do we call it?’” We scratched our heads. Then Bandar Bhai said, “Let's call it ‘ Apna Time Aa Gaya ’.” Ghusanewala hugged him, as he grinned, “ Yo hui na monkey baat .”
