Showing posts with label Banno Tera Swagger Lage Sexy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Banno Tera Swagger Lage Sexy. Show all posts
Tanishk and Vayu asked me to sing 'sexy' as 'saxy'-Swati Sharrma
7:42 AM
Singer Swati Sharrma was surprised when her rough cut of Banno was finalised for Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Lakshmi V (BOMBAY TIMES; June 19, 2015)
For 20-year-old Swati
Sharrma, Banno is a special song. Not only because
it turned out to be her first hit, but also because it gave her a break
in Bollywood. Excerpts from a conversation with her...
Banno is your big Bollywood debut. How did you get the offer to sing the number?
Actually, I had sung a scratch of the song for composers Tanishk and Vayu. The thing with singing scratches is, you never know for what film you are singing for and if your voice will be selected or not. So, I had no hopes when I went to the studio. Tanishk and Vayu told me the line of the song and asked me to modulate my voice. They asked me to sing 'sexy' as 'saxy'. It was very quirky and I enjoyed doing it, but then forgot all about it. After two months, Tanishk called to say that my voice has been finalised. He said,“Don't jump up and down, but the song is for Tanu Weds Manu Returns.“ (Director) Aanand L Rai asked to retain my voice from the scratch itself. I was waiting to see my name on the poster and the official website. Throughout the night before, my dad was crying, and I was asking him to relax. The next day, when I saw my name on the site, I was the one crying and he was playing carrom!
Did you have to work on your accent to make it sound Haryanvi?
No, accents come easily to me. I keep doing masti at the recording studio and enjoy every second of singing. So, accents are never a problem for me. When I heard the line 'Banno tera swagger laage sexy,' I was like, what does that mean? A lot of people heard the word 'swagger' as 'sweater'.
So, what did the film's team tell you?
I haven't met the lead actors Kangana Ranaut or Madhavan, but Aanandji said he liked my voice a lot and asked me to keep up my work. In an interview, Kangana had also said that her 'pancreas hil gaye' when she was dancing for this number. These are such huge compliments for me.
Has playback singing always been your passion?
Yes, it started when I was eight. I would mimic Adnan Sami's singing in his Tera Chehra album. My father saw this and told me I must train classically if singing is what I want to and like to do. So, I started training under Pankaj Maharaj in Muzaffarpur (Bihar). I also completed Sangeet Visharad from Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh. And then I took off to Mumbai to pursue my dream. My dad loves music, but no one in our family has made it their profession. I wanted to and came here.
Making contacts in the film industry might have been difficult, given that you don't have a filmi background...
For the first 2-2.5 years, I worked hard to get links in the industry. I had no support here. I visited social networking sites, film directories to get numbers of directors and music directors. I also met a few other aspirants. Tanishk and Vayu were very helpful when I approached them with audio samples. I had no idea how the music industry functioned. I always thought you just had to give them your audio CDs, and if they liked your voice, they will finalise you for their album. I didn't know what a scratch or a rough cut was. But all the composers were kind enough to let me sing scratches.
How did you feel when your voice wasn't being finalised for any songs?
There were many moments when I'd feel very low. I'd not sleep till five in the morning. And throughout my low phase, my younger sister Shikha would motivate me. She can't hear or talk, but she has seen how mad I am about music. It's because of her that I never lost confidence in myself.
With so many newer singers getting a break in the industry, do you feel the heat of the competition to survive here?
It's a healthy trend in the industry that everyone who has talent is getting an opportunity to showcase it. If I didn't get that opportunity, I know how bad I would have felt. At the same time, I know you need to be one notch better than the best in the industry to keep getting work. But, my plus point is that I can sing all kinds of songs. In fact, I did a single Kyun Kho Gaye three months ago with Pakistani band Raeth. It's a pure soft rock number while Banno is a folksy one. I can modulate my voice and texture to suit the mood of the composition.
What next?
I have a dream, to sing in Wembley Stadium. For now, I have about four songs in upcoming film Direct Ishq, and couple more in Ek Terah Saath, for which I've sung with Sonu Nigam and KK among others. I also sang a number in an international project, Flame, which went to Cannes.
Banno is your big Bollywood debut. How did you get the offer to sing the number?
Actually, I had sung a scratch of the song for composers Tanishk and Vayu. The thing with singing scratches is, you never know for what film you are singing for and if your voice will be selected or not. So, I had no hopes when I went to the studio. Tanishk and Vayu told me the line of the song and asked me to modulate my voice. They asked me to sing 'sexy' as 'saxy'. It was very quirky and I enjoyed doing it, but then forgot all about it. After two months, Tanishk called to say that my voice has been finalised. He said,“Don't jump up and down, but the song is for Tanu Weds Manu Returns.“ (Director) Aanand L Rai asked to retain my voice from the scratch itself. I was waiting to see my name on the poster and the official website. Throughout the night before, my dad was crying, and I was asking him to relax. The next day, when I saw my name on the site, I was the one crying and he was playing carrom!
Did you have to work on your accent to make it sound Haryanvi?
No, accents come easily to me. I keep doing masti at the recording studio and enjoy every second of singing. So, accents are never a problem for me. When I heard the line 'Banno tera swagger laage sexy,' I was like, what does that mean? A lot of people heard the word 'swagger' as 'sweater'.
So, what did the film's team tell you?
I haven't met the lead actors Kangana Ranaut or Madhavan, but Aanandji said he liked my voice a lot and asked me to keep up my work. In an interview, Kangana had also said that her 'pancreas hil gaye' when she was dancing for this number. These are such huge compliments for me.
Has playback singing always been your passion?
Yes, it started when I was eight. I would mimic Adnan Sami's singing in his Tera Chehra album. My father saw this and told me I must train classically if singing is what I want to and like to do. So, I started training under Pankaj Maharaj in Muzaffarpur (Bihar). I also completed Sangeet Visharad from Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh. And then I took off to Mumbai to pursue my dream. My dad loves music, but no one in our family has made it their profession. I wanted to and came here.
Making contacts in the film industry might have been difficult, given that you don't have a filmi background...
For the first 2-2.5 years, I worked hard to get links in the industry. I had no support here. I visited social networking sites, film directories to get numbers of directors and music directors. I also met a few other aspirants. Tanishk and Vayu were very helpful when I approached them with audio samples. I had no idea how the music industry functioned. I always thought you just had to give them your audio CDs, and if they liked your voice, they will finalise you for their album. I didn't know what a scratch or a rough cut was. But all the composers were kind enough to let me sing scratches.
How did you feel when your voice wasn't being finalised for any songs?
There were many moments when I'd feel very low. I'd not sleep till five in the morning. And throughout my low phase, my younger sister Shikha would motivate me. She can't hear or talk, but she has seen how mad I am about music. It's because of her that I never lost confidence in myself.
With so many newer singers getting a break in the industry, do you feel the heat of the competition to survive here?
It's a healthy trend in the industry that everyone who has talent is getting an opportunity to showcase it. If I didn't get that opportunity, I know how bad I would have felt. At the same time, I know you need to be one notch better than the best in the industry to keep getting work. But, my plus point is that I can sing all kinds of songs. In fact, I did a single Kyun Kho Gaye three months ago with Pakistani band Raeth. It's a pure soft rock number while Banno is a folksy one. I can modulate my voice and texture to suit the mood of the composition.
What next?
I have a dream, to sing in Wembley Stadium. For now, I have about four songs in upcoming film Direct Ishq, and couple more in Ek Terah Saath, for which I've sung with Sonu Nigam and KK among others. I also sang a number in an international project, Flame, which went to Cannes.
With Banno, we wanted to steer clear of alcohol abuse & ched-chaad - Vayu & Tanishk
7:42 AM
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 22, 2015)
"We sent him a scratch of Banno tera swagger lage sexy but when we didn't
hear from Aanand sir (Aanand L Rai, producer-director of Tanu Weds Manu
Returns) for three days. We presumed that he did not like the
composition and we'd lost the opportunity," reminisces Vayu Srivastava. But to his surprised delight, the filmmaker, who'd been away on a recce, eventually called them to say that he would use this as a promotional song. He added that he also wanted to incorporate it in the film and had told his writer to come up with a situation for it.
And that's how this young music director, along with his partner Tanishk Bagchi, entered the picture to join the film's other composer, Krsna Solo in the credits, after Rai had stumbled upon the video of their earlier song, Oopar oopar ren de, which had been released online.
Since the brief was for a shaadi song, they decided to take the traditional lyrical route and for the next three days were humming, 'Banno tera mukda' and 'Banno teri aankhen' till someone came up with 'Banno tera swagger lage sexy...' and they instinctively knew they had found their catch line. It was only later that they realised that swagger isn't a common English word and so would lend itself to several interpretations, from 'Banno tera sweater lage sexy' and 'Banno tera scooter lage sexy' to 'Banno tera swayamvar lage sexy'. Hoping to clear some of the confusion they suggested to the makers that they call the song 'Swagger' but it was released as 'Banno' and the word plays which continue though the song is a craze now.
Vayu who's from Bhopal reminisces: "I crooned it to my mami who pulled a face and asked me why I was singing about sweaters and then reacted to 'sexy' with a horrified shriek, Kya lage?"
Tanishk admits that he passed 'sexy' off as 'saaxy' to his Bengali father and convinced him they were talking about saxophones.
"But apart from that one word, it's a 'U' certificate song unlike most Bollywood shaadi songs which are all about daaru and ladki patana," Vayu is quick to point out. "We were very sure we wanted to steer clear of alcohol abuse and ched-chaad," he added.
He also points out that though it can pass off as a folksy Haryanvi marriage song with a contemporary beat there are very few Haryanvi words in the lyrics. "It's mostly Hindi and Punjabi words which can be easily understood. We didn't want too much swagger," Tanishk laughs, admitting that while 10 per cent dismiss Banno as a "bakwas gaana", the remaining 90 per cent are dancing to its tune.
They had recorded the scratch with Brijesh Shandillya and Swati Sharma, strugglers like them, but knowing that Tanu Weds Manu Returns is a big-banner film and the song would be picturised on Kangana Ranaut, they made a list of more established voices for the dub. But to their amazement, Rai liked both voices and told them to retain the singers. "We want to support young talent like us and the success of Banno has boosted our confidence," asserts Vayu.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)