Salim: Hardest part is casting process

Set to follow their Broadway adaptation of Umrao Jaan with Disco Dancer, composer duo Salim-Sulaiman on transitioning from musicians to storytellers

Seated at a spacious studio, Salim and Sulaiman Merchant are weaving for us a tale that is set to open for theatre-going audiences on March 27, through 29. The months that they have spent breathing life into the Broadway adaptation of Disco Dancer hasn't diminished their fever. It is palpable in the twinkle in their eyes as they discuss "adding a dramatic ma-beta angle", employing lavish LED sets to depict "Bombay of the '80s", and "lowering of two telephone booths for a scene."

As they discuss Saregama Carvaan's adaptation of Mithun Chakraborty's 1982 musical for the stage, which follows the composer duo's successful Umrao Jaan, it is evident that they've emerged from being musicians to story-tellers. "The hardest part about a musical is the casting," says Salim, adding, "In India, finding someone who can sing, dance, and act, is a big challenge. While people may excel in one or two [skills], it's tough to find those who are good at all three. And we need to find at least five of them." The journey to merely zeroing in on the lead actors took them seven months, reveals Sulaiman. "Our country is not geared [to creating] a sampoorna kalakar, or true performer. Our aim was to find a good singer. That's the toughest part, since all the singing is done live. We identified singers who are good-looking, and then sent them to acting class." The unit roped in to feature in the production is currently on a fitness programme designed to build endurance, and hence, enable them to sing appropriately, without struggling for breath in the midst of dancing stints.

Employing larger than life screens and abundant technology meets a two-fold purpose. Firstly, it enables them to transport viewers back to the '80s with visuals from the era. "Also, since the story demands that we create backdrops, like the inside of a police station, or [scenes from] Goa, we needed to avoid moving sets since we want this show to travel to Delhi, US and the UK."

A great story, and a promising soundtrack are the essential factors to consider when choosing a film for a theatrical adaptation. But as cinema does with reality, the duo also takes creative liberty when adapting a project for their platform. While they "introduced a conflict" in Umrao Jaan via the addition of a character, they've added comic relief to Disco Dancer by featuring a Goan friend of the protagonist, Jimmy. "We created a character called Anthony, who is Jimmy's childhood friend. The comic relief is important for people to enjoy it."

The duo has gone to great lengths to ensure Bappi Lahiri's compositions are retained "exactly the way they were" in the original film, even taking off to New York and Prague to record with instruments popular in the '80s, but no longer available in India. "Apart from his tracks, we have three original compositions. There's a beautiful love song to give [viewers] a break from all the disco [tracks]. The other a track made for a film. It's called Yaaron main toh star ban gaya, and depicts Jimmy's growth from a nobody to a superstar. It has Latin and Brazilian beats. The third is an instrumental number which comes at a crucial point. It's [along the lines of] an opera, but we're contemplating adding a song there as well."

Whether it was when creating four original songs for Umrao Jaan, or the three that they did for this offering, the duo is mindful of the music style of the original composer "so that a listener can't differentiate a fresh composition from the [original soundtrack]". "With Umrao Jaan, we tried to create songs befitting Khayyam saab's compositions. In Disco Dancer, we've retained every cheesy element that Bappi da used, and became popular."

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