Amit Trivedi: Every six months, we feel redundant

Amit Trivedi

When Anurag Kashyap told Amit Trivedi that he wanted a soundtrack that grips the attention of youngsters between the ages of 18 and 20, the composer looked at him with amusement. "You and Shellee ji [lyricist] are in your 50s, and I am in my 40s. How will we create a soundtrack that caters to 20-year-olds?" Trivedi asked the director, who appointed his daughter Aaliyah, 22, to serve as their sounding board as they prepared to create the eight-track album of Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat.

The director's diktat was also fitting, given that the film follows a young London-based disc jockey who creates original music. "Five songs were made for this character, and the rest are romantic songs for the twin love stories in the film. The album was a tough one to crack, because we needed a new-age melody, and that required research. There was electronica, and dance music that was employed. We tried to understand what [Aaliyah] and her friends were listening to," says the musician, adding that another means to acquire the youthful vibe that they desired was to rope in the younger crop of singers for the renditions.

Singers including Arjun Kanungo, Bhumi Trivedi, and Nikita Gandhi have lent their vocals to this album that caters to gen-Z. It is this young crop of artistes that Trivedi says, makes him feel redundant, year-after-year. "They always have something new to present, and in order to stay relevant, we need to keep going back to study the kind of music that they are consuming. It is ever-evolving. Of course, poetry, good singing, and great composition are aspects that will remain essential for eternity, but, when it comes to aesthetics, sounds, and styles of composition, I am willing to keep learning. It is a vast ocean."

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It was in 2007 that Trivedi and Kashyap first joined hands to work on Dev D, a film that put the musician's delightfully eclectic creations on a pedestal. Trivedi swiftly emerged to be a force to reckon with in the music industry, with films like Udta Punjab, Dear Zindagi, and Andhadhun, serving as testimony of his command over various styles of music. His subsequent collaborations with Kashyap in films like Shandaar and Manmarziyaan gave credence to the fact that this power-packed duo truly had a grip on the essentials of creating soundtracks suited for cinema. Trivedi admits that his "process" of sound-creation has always depended on his ability to immerse himself into his director's world. But, with Kashyap, things are different. "The norm is to create a song that serves the listener, and can hence [become a commercial number]. Anurag encourages me to use music as a means to express, and disregard any defined criteria. As a result, I enjoy the process, and that reflects in the score."