Last April, Anupam Roy walked into Shoojit Sircar’s Salt Lake house, guitar in hand. When he emerged a few hours later, he wore a shy smile at the prospect of doing a song for Sircar’s next film. A few weeks later when the singer-songwriter emerged from the Madras Cafe maker’s house again, he was grinning from ear to ear — he had just been told that he was the music director for Piku. t2 tunes into Anupam’s ‘journey’.

Journey song has notched up more than 6 lakh views on YouTube in two weeks. Bezubaan has 82,000 singalongs in three days. So has Tollywood lost Anupam to Bollywood?

I’d read in one of Rafisaab’s interviews that the hunger for applause is marattok (deadly). It goes on increasing with time. There’s no end to it. I would like to reach out to more people, and that’s my driving force. Now if I’ve to do it in outer space, I’ll also be happy! We don’t control our destiny, in fact the reverse is true. I want to work where there is love, respect, where you enjoy working. I’m a workaholic. I would like an atmosphere where everyone is helping me with my work, instead of obstructing me. It should be inspiring.

But isn’t the popularity of the Piku songs motivation enough to move base to Mumbai?

It is attractive, but this is not the time to comment on it. I have not thought about it yet. I’m very happy with my audience and the amount of love I have got. I’m living my life just the way I wanted to. I’m a lucky person. 

Have you met Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Irrfan Khan yet?

I haven’t had a chance to talk to Amitabhji or Deepika yet. I went to the sets during the shoot in Calcutta, but both times I reached after pack-up. It was sheer bad luck. The first time I was about to head out to Thanthania Kalibari when I got a call informing me that the shoot was done for the day and that I should go to the Oberoi Grand. There I spotted Irrfan Khan.
Another time I went to Burdwan Rajbari around 2pm and again I missed the shoot by a few minutes. As I reached, I spotted Amitabhji and Deepika walking away and I got to know that the shoot for the day was over (smiles).

Any feedback from them on the songs?

Amitabhji has heard the background music while dubbing. The film has a lot of themes and he really liked one of the themes and wanted to know who has played it, what gharana it belonged to. 

So, how did it all start?

A year ago, in April, Shoojitda quite informally asked me, ‘Would you like to do a song for my film?’ I said, ‘Yes’. I was so excited. I went to his place in Salt Lake with my guitar and the first song I played to him was Bezubaan. I had gone with scratch lyrics but the word ‘bezubaan’ was there.

So you had already started writing Hindi songs by then?

I had written one song before Bezubaan, but aami lojjay kauke shonai ni (I was too shy to share it). (Laughs) Shoojitda liked Bezubaan and approved it immediately. It was locked for the film, and he asked me to do another song. 

So you didn’t know then that you’d score the music for Piku?

I never expected that I would become the music director of the film (Piku has five songs composed by Anupam) and also get to do the background score. Every other Bolly film these days has multiple composers doing the songs. Shoojitda just let me be and gave me complete freedom to compose my own kind of music. He had told me to maintain my signature style and sound, something he really liked in the tune Amar mote tor moto keu nei from Hemlock Society. So he told me to keep that in mind.
Two-three weeks later I went to Shoojitda’s place with Journey song. He liked it, and for the first time gave an input — he suggested that I put a few Bengali lines in Journey song.... I signed the agreement by August. He put his full faith in me. 

What was the director’s brief to his music composer?

He asked me to keep it simple and organic. All the songs are played by Calcutta musicians and they were recorded in Sonic Solution (in Lake Gardens). 

A Shoojit Sircar film starring Amitabh, Deepika, Irrfan... when did it all sink in? And how did you deal with it?

The only area for concern was writing in Hindi. I’m very confident about my Bengali, I know the language inside out. But I’m not so confident with Hindi. I had problems with grammar, so I used to send the lyrics for correction to my friend Ritesh Shah. We would often go up to six versions! For Bezubaan, Manoj Yadav helped me with the lyrics. At times before singing it I would ask him the meaning of a word (smiles)! 

You use imagery, wordplay, and abstraction in your Bengali lyrics. What did you focus on when writing Hindi lyrics?

Keeping in mind the situation and context of the songs, my sole aim was to put words to melody in such a way that one can sing it easily. No word should sound out of place. The lyrics should sound pleasing. You know, I’ve no intention of being a Hindi lyricist… I’m still developing those skills. And for Piku, I have tried out everything — I’ve written in Bengali and English and then put it through the Google translator (to Hindi)! I’ve put together a random bunch of Hindi words and tried to make sense out of that! I’ve used various permutations and combinations. I would ask Shoojitda if the lyrics were okay and he would say that they were sounding fine. He approaches it from a listener’s point of view and he goes by instinct. 

How come you are singing all the songs?!

(Laughs) I had suggested the names of a couple of male singers for the other songs but Shoojitda wanted someone with a pure, honest, new and fresh voice. 

Are the Piku tracks Bengali tunes done in Hindi?

No, the songs are set on a broader canvas and my weapons here are my melody and voice.

Were you self-conscious while singing in Hindi? 

Initially, I was, but then we have all grown up listening to Hindi songs by Rafi, Kishore, Manna Dey, Euphoria, Silk Route.... I speak decent Hindi and when I sang, my friends (including girlfriend Piya) and recordists helped me out with some of the nuances and pronunciations. 

Did you think of following the latest trends in Bolly music? 

I’m aware of what’s happening in Bolly music and look forward to the music made by A.R. Rahman and Amit Trivedi. But when it comes to eagerly waiting for albums, I am more interested in what Noel Gallagher or Sting is doing (smiles). 

The two Piku songs primarily follow the Western verse-chorus-verse structure, a departure from the mukhra-antara format in Hindi songs... 

Yes, audiences here prefer listening to the hook line or mukhra first. The first line should grab your attention. International songs or folk songs don’t follow the pattern. There were discussions about Bezubaan, and suggestions to start with the word ‘bezubaan’. But that’s another approach and that’ll be another song. So we went with the original format. 

So when did you finally see Piku? And what do you make of it?

This February-March when I went to do the background score. The story is told very simply and honestly and one can relate to the characters. Piku is a family-comedy-drama film. There are moments that hansaati bhi hai, rulaati bhi hai. The content of the film is so rich.... Piku is my favourite Shoojit Sircar film. I’m really impressed with Deepika’s acting and looks… the costumes, the bindi is looking really good on her. Her eyes are so expressive, you’ll get to see a different side of Deepika. And Amitabhji has delivered a mind-blowing performance. He is hilarious. Also, I’m big fan of Irrfan... he is such a powerful actor. Among the Calcutta brigade, Moushumi Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta and, yes, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury phatiye diyechhe!

ANUPAM ON PIKU SONGS

Journey song is about a journey. It’s a soft, melodious number that starts with ukulele and then drums, flute, dafli, khanjira, esraaj come in. This is a very 2015 Indian sound where everything seamlessly merges together. 

Bezubaan is a ballad with a haunting melody, and it’s more than a love song. We’ve used sarod in the song to make it sound Indian and richer.