Riding high on the success of Rustom and Baar Baar Dekho, Calcutta boy Arko Pravo Mukherjee — better known as Arko — met t2 at Aqua, The Park.

Welcome back to Calcutta! What brings you here this time?
Thank you! The last time I was here in the city was four months ago. I keep coming here because my parents live in Kestopur. So when I come here I am either with them or in Salt Lake and Rajarhat. I am in Calcutta this time for the release of Dariya from Baar Baar Dekho. I couldn’t be there for the song promotions of Rustom since I was in Los Angeles and Akki Sir (Akshay Kumar) was like, ‘Tu abhi se star behave kar raha hai!’ Whenever I am in Calcutta I try to catch up with my
relatives and friends from Don Bosco (Park Circus).

Dariya is fast climbing the music charts. How did the song happen? [The song has now bagged 3,122,508 million views... and counting]
This was the first song that Karan Sir (Johar) took from me a year-and-a-half back. I had first worked with him in Kapoor & Sons where I sang Saathi rey, but Dariya is a special one because when Nitya (Mehra, the film’s director) explained the idea of the film to me I found it very interesting. After I presented Dariya, Excel Entertainment (run by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani) liked the song and then for some reason, Karan Sir insisted that I should sing my songs. My next two tracks are with him, which I cannot name, but one of them has Sidharth Malhotra again. And once he jokingly told me, ‘Tu lucky hai mere liye’ because Kapoor & Sons did so well (laughs).
Katrina loves Dariya the most (in the Baar Baar Dekho album) and I was quite surprised since I didn’t expect her to like this track so much.

Saathi rey to Tere bin yaara in Rustom... are you drawn towards soft numbers?
My music in Jism 2 did well... and so did Allahwariyan (from Yaariyan).  There have been quite a few hits, but this madness for Tere bin yaara I haven’t seen before! Soft numbers have been a natural thing for me, while a conscious effort was Paani wala dance (Kuch Kuch Locha Hai) and that was the only time I felt that let’s try something different. My
natural style is all the other songs that you have heard, I love melody and melodic writing. In Bollywood, I like the music from 1960s the most as I feel the writing was deeper and the melody was better.

What’s your take on party tracks, which are now almost a must in movies... do you find them challenging?
My music is naturally soulful and melodic, so it’s not challenging or difficult and I never feel something that way but if you ask little bit out of my comfort zone, I would say it’s  (Paani wala dance) the commercial dance number of India. But again in the West in terms of music like house and tropical house... don’t know if you have heard it…

Yes, Kygo is a tropical house artiste…
Exactly... that’s a good example! So my first two singles (yet unreleased) have been mellow dance music. In English,  I am more comfortable doing dance music and this is why perhaps I  cannot write funny stuff in Hindi... I can only write poetry.

Have you not thought of infusing Bangla in any of your compositions... maybe baul or Tagore….
(Laughs) I have heard so many jokes in Bombay about this… things like ‘Tum Bangali log aake sabka kaam le lete ho!’ To my family, Tagore is God. There were a couple of times when I had plans to include Tagore in my work, but it never worked out. And for using Bangla in films I have to be in Calcutta and put in a lot of time...it seems difficult right now.

Having spent eight years in Bombay now, who are your friends in the industry?
I have a whole family there and I have people who would take bullets for me. I am very close to  Amaal Mallik... Armaan also but he is very young, so I can’t say everything in front of him. Then Ankit (Tiwari), Jeetda (Gannguli)... their entire family has been close to me and we have been on vacations together. Nawaz (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) used to be very close to me, but I haven’t met him in two-three years. Sonuda (Nigam), Shaanda....

Who are your inspirations?
Live stories, women, places, travels, my experiences, problems, my own life…  I can give you names of musicians who I admire — Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, U2, Prince, John Mayer… so many of them. Here it would be Tagore, S.D. Burman, Shankar Jaikishan, Madan Mohan, Hemantada (Mukherjee)… in modern times Vishal Bhardwaj is my favourite... second and third favourites will be A.R. Rahman and Pritamda.

What are you working on presently?
In my next project, for the first time I have worked for another composer — Ankit Tiwari, who is a friend of mine. He has already sung three-four songs for me, but for the first time I am singing for him in Tum Bin 2.  Then I have my first English single coming out this year and that’s a mainstream commercial song. So before New Year, there will be the release of two singles, and next year I have my first album.

A track you wished you would have composed better?
Allah waariyan among my songs. Among someone else’s songs would be the title track of Raanjhanaa. I am a huge fan of his (Rahman), but I feel in a few songs he has this beautiful part in the song, but he doesn’t realise its beautiful… I feel for this song he should have stuck to the chorus.

 

 

Pramita Ghosh
Picture: Arnab Mondal
Location: Aqua, The Park