Remixing stardom

Tanishk Bagchi

New music composers in the industry either win the favour of cinephiles and critics, or face brickbats. Tanishk Bagchi, however, faced an unusual predicament during his early years in Bollywood - he found favour in cinephiles, and faced the brickbats of critics. The Humma song, one of his first remixes, became a chartbuster in no time, and paved the way for a fresh trend in the industry. Bagchi's scores became hot favourites among music consumers, a development that sat well with label heads, but not with composers of the original ditties that Bagchi was revisiting.

"I wasn't the first one," Bagchi tells mid-day in a candid chat. "Amit Trivedi did it with Hungama ho gaya, and Vishal-Shekhar with Bachna ae haseeno. When I started doing it, people questioned me. So, I decided that if I created two remixes, I'd make two original tracks as well. If I made Humma humma, I made Akh lad jaave too. If I was at the top due to my remixes, I was also at the top because of my original songs."

Bagchi's resume evidently backs his claim. In 2021, apart from being a top performer on Indian music apps, his Shershaah composition Rataan lambiyan made it to the Billboard charts as well. Emraan Hashmi-starrer Lut gaye, and Nach meri rani were other Bagchi compositions that were also seamlessly adopted by music lovers.

Assured in the knowledge that "those criticising me are the ones dancing to my tunes", he says reinventing music is only a way of celebrating the work of revered composers. "My dad [Nandakumar Bagchi] would say that during the end of RD Burman's life, few were there [with him]. But when he [passed away], people started reinventing his music. Nobody is trying to reinvent the work of those who are here. Only when they go do we say, ‘Wah, kya kaam kiya tha'. How do we get these legends back? We can do collaborations. Maybe, Anu Malik and I could collaborate."

Despite the criticism he has faced, Bagchi is the go-to person for filmmakers seeking a hit track in their offerings. With as many as 20 projects under his belt as we speak, he gears up for his next, the Rajkummar Rao-starrer Badhaai Do. "I worked on the [franchise's] first film as well, so I had the theme in my mind already. I begin to visualise the film through the music as soon as the story is narrated to me. I also like to think about it like a director would, and match the director's vision. The dialect plays a crucial role as well. For instance, a Delhi-based film will have a Punjabi song. For a film set in UP, I will try to incorporate the flavour that we had in Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya. With 20 films [in my kitty], I need to be fast. It would usually take me a month, but, now, if a scenario is explained to me, I can churn out a track in a day."

Matching the desired quality, one would assume, would be a challenging feat. But, Bagchi says his only aim is to appease himself. "Even if my manager or anyone else says a song I've made is good, I won't present it unless I like it. If it doesn't appeal to me, I will throw it out. I will also never repeat a certain kind of song. I can do a Makhna with Jacqueline Fernandez, a Nach meri rani with Nora Fatehi, a Rataan lambiya, which is [like a] sufi track, and a Tip tip barsa for Sooryavanshi. They all sound different."

Bagchi admits that understanding the ways of the industry took a fair amount of toil. He didn't find it easy to get work when he arrived in Mumbai from Calcutta, and turning down offers that he knew could easily go to other composers didn't seem like a wise decision. "If I said no, producers would go to someone else. So I focussed on doing the best I could. At the end of the day, I focus on the good. When I will no longer be here, [my songs] like Ve mahi and Baarish will be immortalised."