Bhopal has an amazing music sense: Shravan Rathore

Shravan Rathore, who was recently in Bhopal for the first time for a music concert, gets candid with BT
Music director Shravan Rathore couldn’t help gushing about the beauty of Bhopal on his first visit to the city recently. Calling it a mini-hill station, Shravan got candid with us about his journey as a music director, his future music projects, contemporary music and item numbers.Excerpts from the interview.
Bhopal is a mini-hill station “The first time I had heard about Bhopal’s beauty was some 20 years back when I was doing a film “Apradhi Kaun”. My friend and actor Javed Khan had said so much about the city that I wanted to come here since then. Now that I am here, I realize that Bhopal has a great sense of music,” Shravan said, adding, “Saare taalon mein Bhopal ke taal sabse bade hain. It’s a beautiful city. When I arrived in the morning, there was a slight nip in the air; the city was looking like mini-Kashmir.”
I am planning to shoot my film in Bhopal While talking about his production house and his future projects, he said, “The first film that will release under the banner of my production house is “Masters”. The film has Dharmendra, Sunny and Bobby Deol on board and will be directed by Anil Sharma. The shooting will begin in mid-2012 and the film will release in 2013. After coming here, I am planning to shoot some part of my movie in Bhopal too.” On asking whether his focus has shifted to producing films from composing music, he said, “I have composed music for more than 300 films. Now, I wanted to do something more creative, so I thought of giving a chance to film production. But music will always remain my first priority, I’ve just made a temporary transition towards film production.”
Katrina’s ‘Chikni Chameli’ is vulgar Talking about the importance of item numbers in films, Shravan explained, “Item numbers are necessary in films as it caters the taste of commercial audience. My film “Masters” will also have an item number. Films in the 60s and 70s also had item numbers, but they were not done by lead actresses. Today the heroines have also started doing it, which I personally don’t like. Katrina’s “Chikni Chameli” is so vulgar that you can’t see it with your family. Katrina ke actions ajeeb se hain usme.”
Music directors should promote Indian talent Pointing towards foreign singers crooning Hindi film songs, Sharavan said, “That song “Chhammak Chhallo” that was sung by Akon… he does not even know how to speak in Hindi. He was specially taught how to speak the language for the song. When music directors are ready to give so much time, why don’t they try the reality show singers, who are otherwise jobless after the show gets over. We should promote Indian talent.”
We are yet to explore Hindustani music Shravan was also upset with ‘too much’ westernization in Indian music. “People in the industry are trying to copy the western music. They are putting more of Chinese and Malaysian music in their composition, but I would say our own music has not yet been explored properly. Why are we not exploring our folk music and other genres of Hindustani classical music? We can come up with fantastic compositions using our ragas and taals, than by copying the western music,” said he.
Contemporary music has no lyrical value “Why do old songs never die? It’s because they are emotional, melodious and are of more lyrical value. Their lyrics are meaningful. The so-called contemporary music doesn’t have any lyrical value. Because of this, one finds it difficult to understand and memorise the songs these days. I want those melodies back and I am trying to bring them back,” Shravan said.
Nitisha Kashyap