Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy play Abu Dhabi on Saturday

Bollywood music composer to woo fans with old and new numbers

Indian musical trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy promise a 'slamming concert' when they perform at the du Forum in Yas Island on August 13.
"It's going to be fun playing for our fans in the UAE. The concert is going to be a slamming one," the 'Amar Akbar Anthony' of Hindi film music industry said about the Indian Independence Day event titled 'Bollywood in the Capital'. The event is part of the Abu Dhabi Summer Season package.
Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa have composed chart-busters for big-ticket films but they do feel sad 'when a film flops and the music sinks with it'.
"It is up to the music companies to exploit the works separately from the film. Mostly they don't," they said.
The maestros are all set to woo crowd with their old and latest compositions, and make the Indian Independence Day celebrations a special one. Tickets can be booked at www.ticketmaster.com with general admission costing Dh150 and reserved seats coming at Dh200. Rock On!
Indie rules
Composer and guitarist Ehsaan Noorani feels more record labels need to back independent artists. "Indie music is omnipresent on the Internet be it SoundCloud or YouTube. There is lot of talent putting in music which is unaltered by commercial pressure. Monetisation is difficult and sparse unless you have something like Gangnam Style. It would be good if record companies could put their might behind some of these artists in order to enrich the music industry." Ehsaan started his journey composing music for advertisements. "In a jingle you have to tell an entire story in 30 secs or less. The work has to be commercially and aesthetically rich."
Grab 'em in 3 seconds
For Shankar Mahadevan - four-time National Award winner - being a composer is very challenging.
"I think the whole challenge is to create music that stands out and grab a listener's attention within the first three seconds of your song."
Creating history, SEL co-produced the album for the movie Johnny Gaddaar with Adlabs. Sharing his thoughts, he said: "That was a first where we co-owned the rights of the music. Thanks to the amendments in the copyright law we can now receive royalties for our works."
Instant Karma 2.0
In 1996, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonsa and Farhad Wadia had formed Indian band Instant Karma. However, after initial success the band went into oblivion. Now, Ehsan-Loy duo plan to relaunch the Electronica band.
"It's a work in progress. We hope to take it on the road later this year," multi-instrumentalist Loy said.
Loy's daughter Alyssa Mendonsa is following in his footsteps and made her debut with the song Uff Teri Adaa in Karthik Calling Karthik. Loy has a word of advice for reluctant parents, whose children love to be a musician: "It's a rough road but let them follow their heart."
ashwani@khaleejtimes.com 
 

• Abu Dhabi