Three men were chatting one evening. Two of them, Prakash Khubchandani and Suniel Shetty, casually mentioned that they were looking for some music for their production Rakht. On cue, the third, a corporate honcho, hummed a line with the dummy words “Oh! What a babe”. The other two sat up. They made him record the tune and send it over to Yana Gupta who was to dance to the tune in their forthcoming production. Yana loved it and Shamir Tandon , general manager of EMI India Ltd, became a music director.

“I have been composing since childhood and have over 900 tunes ready. But I never thought they would see the light of day,” Tandon laughs. After all, 10 years ago such careers were not encouraged. So he took up a regular job, while doing jingles on the side. Thus followed McDonald’s, ICICI, Gujarat Ambuja, LIC and some 200 others.

Music and the manager came closer when Tandon was offered the job of starting Virgin India’s country office. “This meant that I was working with Shaan, Shubha Mudgal and Alisha Chinoy, while on the international front I became acquainted with artistes like Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Richard Clayderman and Deep Purple.”

No wonder he got boy bands C21 and Blue to rock with Sunidhi Chauhan for Oh! What a babe and Shaan for One Love. “As a student of marketing, I know that you have to keep your product different from the rest,” he explains.

His MBA and ICWA degrees, insists Tandon, have come to the melody-maker’s use. “Till I become a Rahman, I want to retain my corporate position. Being a country manager of an MNC gives me an identity other than that of a struggling musician. I do not have to prostrate myself to the whims of producers,” he explains.

Sensitivity is something Tandon seeks in the people he makes music for. That is why he considers his chance meeting with Madhur Bhandarkar fortunate. He was having coffee at JW Mariott when an acquaintance introduced him to the maker of Chandni Bar at the next table. “I invited him over to my music room the next day. Even as we jammed, he booked two tunes for his film Page 3.” It was a matter of time till Tandon was asked to do the other five songs as well.

Tandon has several notes to be proud of in Page 3 — Lata Mangeshkar’s return to a non-Yash Raj Films banner, Shaan and Sagarika recording their first filmi duet (“I gave the brother-sister duo a philosophical song rather than a romantic one”) and Adnan Sami, a favourite.

Ask him how he manages to balance corporate responsibilities with a music-maker’s calling, and he shrugs, “Paapi pet ka sawaal hai”.