Among the new wave of composers blending soulful Indian tunes with contemporary soundscapes are music composers and cousins Kaushik-Guddu, who have made a name for themselves in Bollywood, delivering hit playback numbers known for their fresh melodies and modern production design. Their work spans romantic ballads, upbeat dance numbers, and emotionally rich soundtracks, and have earned the young duo a strong presence in films and on major streaming platforms.
A t2 chat with Kaushik-Guddu, who tasted remarkable success with their latest song Deewaniyat, the title track from the Diwali release Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat.
You have become successful music composers at a very young age. Was this a childhood dream? Take us through your initial journey.
Guddu: Kaushik is from an Indian classical background, while I am from Western classical background and we used to perform in separate bands. We were both in college when Kaushik suggested that we take the plunge together as composers. We started to work on ourselves, moved to Mumbai and things started to happen very fast. The first music we created together was the song Tera hoke rahoon for the film Behen Hogi Teri in 2017.
As cousins you have known each other your whole life. Do you think you have any advantages working as a team?
Kaushik: Guddu and I share a great friendship and have great respect for each other too. That makes working together easy. We have great understanding but we have disagreements too, which is normal while creating any composition. But we both know also that such disagreements are because we want the music we create to be good. That is part of the process of the creation of the song.
In terms of your music, who has been your biggest inspiration or influence?
Kaushik: I love to listen to songs by RD Burman, Salil Chowdhury, Manna Dey and Hemanta Mukherjee. Among Bollywood composers, I would listen to Shankar–Jaikishan, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and many others. I have grown up listening to their songs. Much later, I would listen to Pritam da’s songs a lot. Guddu was more into Western music, and listened to a lot of jazz and blues. His taste is different from mine. Now I consider Pritam da, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Vishal-Shekhar as my mentors.
What would you consider the distinct features of your music?
Kaushik: There is nothing very rigid about our music. We only try to maintain a specific sound throughout for a composition. It may include elements of modern electronic music or typical Indian sounds. What is important is that sound should be suitable to the meaning and mood of the song.
Do you prefer to make film music or like working on non-film projects too?
Guddu: Usually we are so busy fulfilling our film music commitments that we don’t have much opportunity to create other music. I definitely think we should devote more attention to that too. A single we recently composed was the song Hairaan for Universal Music, which was sung by Javed Ali. Then there was another song we composed called Teri ada, which Mohit Chauhan sang. The viral Durga Puja number Dugga elo was composed by me and sung by Monali Thakur. We also composed the 2023 Puja song Dugga Dugga by Sunidhi Chauhan.
Your title track Deewaniyat from Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat has created a huge buzz among fans. What was the process of composing it? What was your brief?
Kaushik: So whenever we are asked to compose a song for a film we are usually given a reference of a couple of songs, pertaining to its music, or visuals or writing. However, before we took up this task, producer Anshul Garg and director Milap Zaveri called us and gave a detailed briefing on various aspects of the film, as it would be the title song. And after we had a got the feel of the film, they gave us a complete free hand, and told us to compose the song exactly as we wished to, as long as it came from our hearts. Maybe that is why we could compose with no restrictions, and maybe that is why the song connected so much among the people.
What projects are you working on at the moment? Any plans of composing Bengali songs for films?
Guddu: We are working on music for a few films but they are as yet untitled, and the casting not completed. We expect to deliver both film and non-film songs with lots of romantic numbers and also songs with urban, upbeat Afro tunes. I am sure the audience will love them.
We have already composed one Bengali song Ebhabe ke daake for the film Chengiz starring Jeet. It was sung by Arijit Singh. We do get more offers for making music for Bengali film songs, but there are time constraints and unfortunately none of the new projects have materialised. But we look forward to giving our best efforts whenever we get the chance.