Meet the brain behind the soulful songs of 'Phillauri' - Shashwat Sachdev

The music of Anushka Sharma and Diljit Dosanjh starrer Phillauri has struck all the right notes in the hearts of the audience, all thanks to its Music Director - Shashwat Sachdev, who believes in doing the obvious "not so obviously". His mantra of going the unconventional way has surely worked wonders for his debut Bollywood album. He doesn't hesitate to admit that he has no clue about how to give interviews, but little does he know that he makes for quite an interesting conversation! True to his Jaipur roots, he instantly greets me by saying "Namaskaar!" and we begin our conversation on all things Phillauri, the unconventional structure of its songs, how important are charts for him and more. Excerpts:

How did Phillauri happen to you?

My agents Dutta Dave and Chaitanya Hegde have this company called Tulsi, that manages writing talent and for music they exclusively work with me. So they got me in touch with Karnesh (Sharma) sir and he heard my music and then he asked me if I wanted to do his film. It's been a year and a half now. I was very new to Mumbai back then. So I started working on it. I read the script and I really liked it. A few days back if you would have spoken to me I would have said that I read the script and I really liked it and then I took the film and whatever blah blah. But I saw the film I really did not see the film that I had read, because what I had chosen, or what I had worked on was not what I saw on screen. What I saw was so polished and far more superior than what I had  expected it to be. So I think  I'm very humbled and it's like a blessing that has happened to me. It was not a simple decision or a choice that I made, it was a much bigger thing than that.

What was the brief that was given to you and by whom?

There was no brief as such yaar. I just read the script and then I made the music through what I read, Initially I did Dum Dum, and after that in the script there was another possibility of a song so then the second song I worked on was Sahiba. 

So initially it wasn't decided that you will be composing the entire album....

No, when I had done Dum Dum, it was decided that I'm going to do the whole album

So were you told what kind of feel is expected in the music of the album?

The only thing that they told me was that they want very Punjabi music. They wanted the use of authentic Punjabi instruments. Like it's a period film, a period drama from Punjab so they wanted all the things to be very authentic. I'm a very unconventional person that way, you know, the kind that would do the opposite of what is told to me. I don't like doing those things that are very obvious about doing something conventional, like, using authentic instruments, going to Punjab, recording some folk musicians, doing some folk melodies in a very contemporary way and that's what was too obvious for me. And so, I did the opposite, All the musicians in the film are international musicians. None of the instruments in the film are Punjabi instruments.

Phillauri is steeped in Punjabi folk. Do you think folk music has a future in Bollywood?

See, you know what is actually folk music? Folk music is the music that is actually very old and has lived through ages. And so deciding the destiny of folk music is not in the hands of people. People cannot decide whether folk music can live or not because all these years people have tried to do things differently but still folk has made its way through all these years till this time right now. So, folk music was not actually made by musicians, it was music that was made by common people but it was so catchy that it lived through that time and then it seeped in through our generation and I think it's catching up, so it is going to stay. People cannot decide the destiny of something that has lived through ages and evermore. It has come all the way till here and I'm sure it's going to live and I'm too small to decide on its destiny. 

The music of the film has been much talked about, especially the two tracks Dum Dum and Sahiba...

I don't know yaar, I really feel that God has been very kind, that it's just regular music but people are really giving it so much love and affection.

You've made Romy sing 3 major songs in the album when you already have a Punjabi rockstar in the film. What made you decide to make Romy sing for Diljit?

Isn't it very obvious? That Diljit paaji is acting in the film, so he's going to sing the songs. I'm always more attracted towards something that's not so obvious and unconventional. So yeah, that was the basic thing that I was scared about and I don't know whether I've done the right thing or not but that's the real answer, that it was too obvious for him to sing the songs and if I had the opportunity of working with somebody who has not done it before then I should do that.

Also, Romy is a sound engineer. So I asked him when he was available that night if he wanted to do it? 'You have a very unconventional voice which might work in the song that I'm working on,' I told him. So he came over and he tried it and everybody liked it.  Then for Sahiba, they (the team) thought that we should go with some famous Bollywood singer, because it's such a beautiful melody and may be we should try this singer or some other singer who is really big right now, so we should do one song, a safe song, with him...So everybody wanted me to do that. Then again I thought no, let me do it with the most unexpected, unassuming person. So lets do this with Romy. And then for the third song again everybody said that now THIS probably we should do with THAT singer, and then again I said no man! If that's the case then may be should do it again with Romy and then may be we can have a linear story and a linear graph to the character in the film. And so Romy ended up singing all the three songs. He for sure is a great singer. 

Anvita Dutt has written the lyrics as well as the script of the film. Do you think having the same person to do both the script and the lyrics helps the cause of the film?

No yaar! I don't think so. I think lyric writing is a very particular art form, that's not something that everybody can do. And I think what Anvita ma'am has accomplished in writing the lyrics for this film or for that matter for all the other films she's been writing for ever, I think people don't understand how difficult it is to write lyrics and what a great lyric writer she is, because she is a great writer. But not every great writer can be a great lyric writer. It's a very specific art form. Lyric writing is not regular writing work. It has got nothing to do with a person.

Like for example Anand Bakshi sir! Now he is one of the greatest writers of the generation that he was writing the lyrics for. I think he's a genuine genius. But I can't expect him to write the story of the film that he's writing the lyrics for.  But what he accomplished in lyric writing I don't think any writer after him has been able to accomplish that level of simplicity and ease of writing.

The meter, the rhythm, there are so many things that come along with the baggage of writing the lyrics. And I think Anvita ma'am should get a completely separate credit for writing such genuinely beautiful lyrics. 

There's a certain Sufi touch to the songs...

So you know Sufi, was one thing that I had in mind when I was doing the music because, when you will see the film, this character, it has a certain change in the art. So he changes from something “to” something and that “to” something for me was him getting this sufi-ness in his romance. And so let's say for Dum Dum also, the song has three structures. The first part is infatuation, where the characters just get to know each other. Then the second part is that (hums) “aankhein kitabein si....padh loon” that's the intense part where they fall in love with each other and then the third part starts when they get spiritual with each other and in that there's this sufi-ness to their relationship now. And so, more than technique or class it's just a blessing of God that you used that word today. And it gives me so much of fulfilment. 

How did Anushka Sharma's rap in Naughty Billo come about?

I was told that they want a promotional number and it need to be a little dancy...And I wanted it to be in linearity or in sync with the film that I'm working on. So when you'll see the film I think you'll feel that even though it's not a part of the film, but once you hear the song, after you've seen the film, it's going to be in sync with it. And so I did not want anything in the song that doesn't gel well with the film. And so, even though it's conventionally a dance number but still I feel it works in the film. After watching the film you will feel that the song belonged in that film. 

 Was it her own idea or somebody had to convince her to do it?

I had to convince Anushka for doing it. Because rap as an art form, again is very specific. And the way it's being treated in India is not the way actually rap would probably work anywhere internationally or anywhere else as an art form, like how Tupac did it. If you are doing it, you might as well get a non-musician to do it but do it tastefully, do it right!

So then again it was the most unexpected for a non-musician to do it, so I asked Anushka ma'am and you know she's a very good musician actually and she's a very good singer. She had actually sung the scratch of Naughty Billo because when we were rapping and when we were prepping for the song, the lyrics were not sung by a female vocalist. And Anushka ma'am and Kanika have this thing of coming with new talent in the industry, this is not an agenda, this is actually a true thing. Because that was the first time I had a thing where she said (mimics) 'why are you having me sing your song? You can have a new singer who can come and sing and I'm not going to be a singer and why do you have me here?' and then everyone on the team was like no no, it sounds good. Just keep it the way it is and then she was like 'No, just remove these vocals! They are not making sense and what am I trying to prove here? Just remove it and get a singer who sings it right I'm toh not even the person who can rap and don't know why you all are making me do it.' But then finally I had to convince her.

We've had some great folk music albums, like Mirzya in the recent past, but why do you think they don't pick up as fast as any other typical Bollywood masala song?

I'm too small to comment on the business curve of what music worked and why it worked and what music didn't work and why it did not work. Because I cannot comment on it unless I do my music and I know how people take my music. But I can talk about my music, on what I did and why it worked or not, I think you are a better judge of that.

But when we were doing music first of all I cannot take credit of what I did, because it was a collaboration of so many musicians, of so many people, of a writer, a lyricist, a director, a cinematographer, a choreographer, of my producer letting me do non linear, completely unconventional, non traditional songs with unconventional structures. A song would start somewhere else and would go somewhere else and then end somewhere else completely. And they were completely okay with me doing it. So them being ready for me to do something like that, I think says the fact that we were not trying to do anything.

We did not have any kind of baggage of we want to do folk, or we want to do this or we want to do that. We just wanted to tell a story that the film wanted to say, in a musical way. We did not think of it as an album and whether a song will work or will not work whether people will like it or not, appreciate it or not, whether this is folksy or not folksy. I never had this in my head when I was doing this. So I don't know whether it is going to work or not. And I have a few friends in Mumbai who are much more experienced and accomplished, I don't know how they would look at it, but I think my inexperience in this is the reason that it is the way it is, and I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing and whether it will work or not but that's as much as I know about it.

What do charts mean for you?

Yaar they are very important, and they are very not-important at the same time. They are important in certain aspects for an artist. I don't know whether I can talk about myself because I don't have a lot of body of work to talk about. I don't know whether what I think is even relevant and important for people. Because I don't have that body of work. As far as charts are concerned, may be they are not the first thing in mind right now because there's a certain commitment that I have to my music and I'm still going to do that. But because, the music that comes on the charts, there's a certain amount of money that I get, there's a certain amount of respect, trust and faith that the producers have in me as me being a musician and it's still important in a certain way, but you can't take them too seriously. 

What after Phillauri?

I've already been working on a few things and actually Phillauri was the second thing that I started in Mumbai. I've already been working on something before, that's going to come out in future. But let's see what happens to it and I hope the audience is as kind to me as they've been for Phillauri. 

Are you in talks for any other new projects post Phillauri?

No yaar, right now I'm trying to finish what I already have on my plate. So the next two three months I think I'll finish the projects that I'm already working on right now. They are really close now, almost on the verge of completion, so you'll hear about them really soon, may be in a couple of months (signs off).