B'wood is changing: Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean band members Amit, Rahul and Susmit sing Delhi’s praises.
What has changed in Bollywood music?
Amit: Delhi has always been doing its own thing. But we can only notice the change now that Bollywood is changing. A lot of young directors have come in and they want to treat things differently, they want to experiment with the use of music and they don’t want to keep doing the same thing, the same formula of five-six songs, or the same situations that have been used in the industry before.These new directors are changing the face of the game, Bollywood ke films hi badal gaye hain. Think about this... 10-15 years ago, Bollywood only had Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar, uske baad ek daur aaya jab sirf Kumar Sanu aur Udit Narayan hote they, and for female voices, Alka Yagnik. These are really great artistes, but if you don’t give new people a chance then no good music will ever come out, yaar. Kisi ko chance hi nahi dena hai kyunki formule mein likha hai... Pata nahi kisne yeh formula likha hai.
Susmit: The new directors are not looking for music that they want, but they are interested in the sounds we can create. Therefore, we create exactly what we want to create, rather than cater to the Bollywood needs. That what makes a major difference. When we started off like 20 years back, there was no band playing their own music, and today there are so many musicians who are doing their own stuff.
Rahul: Our aim is not to do Bollywood music. We also want to show that you can make good music when you’re not based out of Bombay. Look at AR Rahman.
What’s it about Delhi musicians that's clicking with Bollywood?
Rahul: The language. Hindi bol sakte hai na hum log... Aur isse bahut farak padta hai. It comes much easier to us – the pronunciation and all are much easier for us people. Delhi has a lot of good singers... Dilli mein kuch toh hai.
Aisa kya hai?
Rahul: Dilli mein sabke paas time hai. In Bombay, you get sucked in and that leaves very little time to sit around and be creative. And that is very important for musicians. I actually feel very bad that a lot of singers go away to Bollywood from Delhi, because Delhi is a great place, nahi toh itne achche hum bante kaise?
Amit: Delhi gives us space – first and foremost. Bombay, on the other hand, just pleasures the industry. Dilli mein chain hai. All the major bands in India today are from Delhi. Euphoria, Parikrama, Indian Ocean, Silk Route – they have made a difference to the music scene, they have a bigger body of work and have sustained it for a long time. Hum filmon ke peeche nahi bhaagte, there’s no commercial angle. We don’t have to make music jo sabko pasand hai. Delhi bands toil harder because hum logon ke paas ek secondary source of income toh hai hi nahi na.
Susmit: For a long time, Indian Ocean was not earning anything, but we knew that we had created something new and we knew that it would take time for the masses to catch on. Initially, a lot of musicians told me you guys will be hooted out because people are expecting to hear what they’ve already heard. But the Delhi audience liked it.
On Bollywood offers...
Amit: We get Bollywood offers, but in Bollywood every project doesn’t fructify.
Susmit: Not one music director/composer has asked us to change our basic form of music. The only thing that does change is the theme that has been given to us, other than that composing music remains the same.
Rahul: Aisa koi plan nahi hota, jab koi poochta hai toh ho jaata hai. We’ve also given music to “Peepli [Live]” and “Black Friday”. So, when we sign a project, we keep the script, the story and the person making it in mind. After all, you’ve to do a lot of work with them, and if you don’t like them, it would turn out to be quite a disaster, wouldn’t it?
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