Mumbai : Music composer and singer-songwriter Sameer Rahat says that unless the film directors and producers value original songs, the culture of recreating and remixing retro songs in Bollywood will never stop.
Sameer is the son of legendry Urdu poet late Rahat Indori.
He made his debut in Hindi cinema with ‘Homecoming’ and also wrote the title song of Madhuri Dixit-starrer ‘The Fame Game’,
He also explained why it is creatively quite a negative practice.
While in the past few years, several films have packaged and reused some of the Bollywood retro songs like ‘Ankhiyo Se Goli Maare’, ‘Ek Do Teen’, ‘Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast’, ‘The Humma Song’ among several others, Sameer shares how challenging it is to establish original sound now.
In conversation with IANS, Sameer said, “I think challenges come when we work with filmmakers who do not value any original music content. Anything original is time-consuming as opposed to just reproducing a sound, a song, a story or anything for that matter. While it is understandable that anything experimental is risk-taking, it is also important to encourage the same. As I am working with Hansal sir in his upcoming project or worked with director of ‘Homecoming’, Soumyajit Majumdar, they really understand music.”
He went on adding, “Being the son of a poets like Rahat saab and that my Ammi is also a poet, the sound of words, music, rhythm is there in my subconscious. I am not saying with any ego that I am an artiste but I am saying very humbly that it hurts when an artiste is told just to copy and make a song just like another one…where is the signature of the artiste?
“Having said that being an artiste, I never lose hope. Things will change in film music and I am sure more original music will be celebrated like the earlier days that we used to call the golden era of film music.”
Currently, Sameer is quite occupied with his upcoming projects as he has composed songs for Hansal Mehta’s upcoming feature film ‘Faraz’, Prime Video series ‘Modern Love’ and Abundantia Entertainment’s upcoming series ‘Hush Hush’.
Asked if becoming a musician or lyricist was a natural choice for him, Sameer said, “Actually not because I wanted to become a cricketer! And my Ammi wanted me to become a doctor…but the environment in the house was that of poetry, literature, music, cinema etc. Honestly, no one taught me anything on how to write or which book should I read. My influence of Abba (Rahat Indori) was in my subconscious mind. In my teenage, I wanted to become a dancer and I was training in dance too!”
“My parents never stopped me from doing anything but during my post-graduation, I realised that cinema is the most powerful medium of storytelling. Music writing, composition etc. I was doing as a youngster. Gradually I took my music seriously,” Sameer signed off.
–IANS