*How's working with Mr. Ghai again? *Yeah, we have been working together since ten years. We worked on a film called Shikhar and then Taal. Mr.Ghai is in love with musicals. He came for the opening of London Dreams and told me that he wanted to do a full fledged musical with colourful dancers and musical characters, like a West-end musical. So I think his dream came true when we worked on Yuvvraaj because it has great choreography and colourful dancers and the main lady played by Katrina Kaif plays the cello. So it has all the goodies we wanted before.
The music is doing really well. How did you deal with the pressure of composing for Subhash Ghai's grand musical? The pressure is always there but if you take that to your head, then you do the wrong things. So we listen to the judgement of hearts and conscience. Working as a team lessens the pressure because you have Mr. Ghai and Gulzar ji to share the pressure. All three of us had creative tussles ideas and came up with something adorable. The result of those tussles is there for everyone to see. How is the music of Yuvvraaj different from your other compositions? The music of Yuvvraaj is a U-turn, going back to orchestral music and choir which we don't get to hear nowadays as most of the stuff is beat oriented and the industry thinks that is what people want. I think it is a bold step from Mr. Ghai to do this kind of music which we like and want people to like. We have hardly used computers except to put the music together, there are very few embellishments. You have five releases this year and all of them are spectacular compositions. So how do you keep each one different and what is your favourite? All of them are releasing this year but I worked on Jaane tu Ya Jaane Na two years ago, Jodhaa was done last year and Yuvvraaj also started last year. This year God has been kind as I have four releases in one year. I loved parts of Jodhaa Akbar and Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na but right now I am in the Yuvvraaj mode. I love Dost, Tu Muskura and Mastam Mastam. Taal was also a musical. So how is the music of Yuvvraaj different from that of Taal? Taal has more electronic and ethnic notes while this is more classical with the choir and orchestration. Yuvvraaj's score is essentially classical. So how did you decide that you wanted to do a classical score? Well, it was not only my decision. I sent Mr. Ghai a CD of my score for The Lord of the Rings musical that I did in London and he loved it and said he wanted the music of Yuvvraaj to be like that. There were almost 200 or 400 people involved in it, so he got them down here. So it started as a vision from there and some of the stuff is as heavy as LOTR while some of it is very simple. How do you choose from the numerous scripts you are offered? It is very difficult for me to refuse the scripts because I love all the scripts but I am physically unable to do all of them. And I like to compose something and go back and improve on it. If I am doing many films at a time, then I won't be able to do that. I am sorry for refusing those directors with great scripts. Can you name any one great director who you have turned down? I don't want to get into controversies so I won't name anyone. What is music to you? Is it work, a pathway to spirituality, does it bind love? I wasn't interested in music actually. When I started composing at the age of 18, I realized the power of music and the freedom of expression and voice it gives you. It led me to spiritualism...that what keeps me going. There is acceptance or rejection or anything but when it affects people, that is what keeps me going. Music always binds love. It affects a generation of people and affects people's loves and that is the best things of me coming into music. If I had been a bank manager then I wouldn't have got the joy of entertaining people or changing their lives and I am grateful to God for that. http://www.starboxoffice.com/newsDetails.aspx?xfile=2008/November/News_20081119_135 -- regards, Vithur
