After the songless Black, Sanjay Leela Bhansali is back with a musical in Saawariya. t2 caught up with Monty Sharma, who has scored the 14 songs dotting the Diwali release.

• We all know your careergraph from the background score of Devdas. What were you doing before that?

Pyarelal (of Laxmikant-Pyarelal) being my tauji — my dad’s elder brother — I was born and brought up in music. Fortunately I was trained by Pandit Ram Prasad Sharma who has trained 90 per cent of the industry’s musicians. I started out arranging for Sajid-Wajid and Sanjeev-Darshan before arranging Ismail Darbar’s score in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

• And Sanjay Leela Bhansali picked you for the background score of Devdas after the fallout with Darbar...

Not really. After the Devdas songs were scored by Ismail, Bhansali wanted me to do the background score of the film. He said that in front of Ismail. I had told Sanjayji that I would not like to arrange music for someone else again. I came to know about this fallout much later. See, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas were Ismail’s destiny. After these two films, Sanjayji wanted a change and he liked my work. So… There is no hard feeling. I don’t feel guilty.

• Before Saawariya and even before Black, you were supposed to do Bajirao Mastani with Bhansali…

I had even recorded two demo songs for Bajirao Mastani but the film did not happen. He had told me during Devdas that he would like to do two or three movies with me.

• So you did not touch any other project of any other director?

Where was the time? I was always working with Sanjayji. It’s hell of a lot of hard work with him. He is improvising all the time and every scene and every score keeps evolving. You have no idea of the kind of music changes right through Black.

• Weren’t you disappointed that there were no songs in Black?

Yes, but there were never any songs in the script. Then one fine day, Prasoon Joshi came with the poem Maine chhooke dekha hai. It was so apt for the film. Sanjayji told me “Monty I want you to make this into a song.” I did that and he liked it so much that he was planning to shoot it and insert it in the film. But by then it was too late. There was pressure from distributors to release the film with so much money wasted in the fire on the sets.

• What was your brief for Saawariya? There was no brief as such. Sanjayji just came and asked me to play some songs I had composed. And then he said this would go in this situation, that would go in that situation. But then everything changed over time. Like Yun shabnami was the first song that was composed. It was planned for a dream sequence but ultimately it became an Id number with qawwali sections and all.

• What did Sanjay Leela Bhansali bring to the table?

Above everything else he gave me complete liberty to create whatever I wanted. We booked the costly Yash Raj sound studio and I recorded songs with 40 violins there. He never questioned my authority. As for the sound, it’s the usual expanse and width befitting a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film.

• In achieving that sound did you allow some of your songs to sound like Darbar’s compositions in Devdas?

I think there is a major difference in orchestration. If you hear Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas, the orchestration is very Indian, while mine is totally Western. The songs are much more simple. They are more user-friendly. You listen to the string selection in Pari or the prelude to Jab se tere naina and you know what I am talking about.

• Even Bhansali’s composed a song for the film…

Yes, Thode badmaash was composed by him long back. He asked me to listen to it and I completely loved it. It was an honour to arrange his composition.

• What are your favourite songs in the Saawariya soundtrack?

The title track, Daras bina nahin chain and Jab se tere naina.

• Why have Shail Hada sung only the title track?

Shail has been with me for all the two-and-a-half years that I have composed Saawariya. He has sung every song in the album but eventually they have been dubbed by other singers. We had just the title track left to be recorded when Shail asked Sanjayji if he could just sing it once in the studio. And for the next 25 minutes flat he sang the song. That’s what you are hearing on the CD.

• Was it a deliberate ploy to use so many voices — Shail, Shaan, Kunal Ganjawala, Parthiv Gohil — for Ranbir?

We went by which song suited which singer. Like Kunal was best for extempore songs like Pari and Masha-allah. Only Shaan could have sung Jab se tere naina. It wasn’t pre-decided.

• How has Saawariya the film turned out?

It is a wonderfully made film. It’s my first film as a music composer. What more can I say?

• Will you work with other directors? Of course, I have been getting such great offers. I am taking a short break and then I will work with other film-makers. I am also doing Sanjay Bhansali’s next, starting April next year.