Zakir Hussain will cheer on Arijit Singh, Salim-Sulaiman and his protégé Raj Pandit at the music launch of Rahul Bose’s next directorial
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 3, 2017)


Sixteen years after tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain collaborated with Rahul Bose on his directorial debut, Everybody Says I’m Fine, the duo will re-unite at a suburban theatre today for the music launch of Rahul’s upcoming directorial, Poorna.

The Padma Shri who composed the 15-track album, performing three of them, “Zindagi”, “Discovery” and “Somewhere”, for the 2001 film, is not a part of Poorna but his protégé, Raj Pandit, is one of the playback singers. But the Ustad will be launching the album with the other singers.

“Zakir is always there when I need him,” says Rahul who shares a close friendship with the maestro who often plays the piano and sings in the choir at Rahul’s charitable events.

The event will also have live acts by Salim-Sulaiman who’ve composed the album and Arijit Singh who has crooned two songs, “Kuch Parbat Hilayein” and “Babul Mora”.

“I wanted the music of Poorna to be soulful, emotional and inspirational. I narrated the story to Salim-Sulaiman and they immediately came on board,” says Rahul, adding that Amitabh Bhattacharya as the lyricist was a boon. “And I’m also delighted to have Zakirbhai join the live jamming session. All the singers are excited to meet Zakirbhai too,” Rahul beams.

Poorna follows the journey of Poorna Malavath, the youngest girl to climb Mount Everest, at 13.

“The film talks about gender equality, asserting that girls who dare to dream are determined to succeed too. The music had to be just as inspirational as the real-life journey,” Rahul signs off.

Popular composer duo Salim-Sulaiman complete 25 years in the music industry
Kasmin Fernandes (MID-DAY; September 12, 2016)

Maverick at technique, musical duo Salim and Sulaiman Merchant have carved a niche for themselves in Bollywood in their journey spanning over two decades. The Emmy-nominated duo (for Nickledeon show Wonder Pets: Save the Bengal Tiger) have ventured into Hollywood (with the film Sold) and nurtured talent like upcoming Bollywood singer Raj Pandit. A new musical documentary Shukranallah celebrates their musical journey over the last 25 years. Excerpts from a chat with Salim:

Your latest single Tu Hai features Internet sensation Jonita Gandhi.
Tu Hai is the fourth song in the YouTube Jammin line-up. It is an upbeat club track. We would call it a combination of a love song and a heartbreak track. If it hadn’t been for YouTube, perhaps we would have never noticed a talent like Jonita. She is an Indo-Canadian singer, who has sung in over 15 albums, and worked with A R Rahman and Clinton Cerejo. These musicians do not need a break. The digital world is becoming the real world. People are watching less of television and exploring the internet more.

Your recent collaborator was another Internet sensation, Siddharth Slathia.
We made Mast Maula with him. The underlying emotion of the song is how carefree and easygoing love has made all of us. I also sang the track with Siddharth. With Jammin, Qyuki and YouTube are building a platform which is giving us some unique voices and the world some even greater melodies. It’s beautiful to make music that has absolute creative freedom and personality to express your emotion without any boundaries.

How has technology changed the way you compose music?
In July, we collaborated with Pakistani singer Abida Parveen and a Canadian music choir on the song Noor-e-Ilahi, yet none of us actually travelled for the song. We composed it over a bunch of FaceTime and Skype sessions.