A Song for the Sake of Music

A fixture in most of Madhur Bhandarkar films,music composer Shamir Tandon has dealt with the tricky terrain of copyright and creativity for quite some time now,since these come with his job description. “Piracy has been affecting musicians for long. What annoys me the most is that it is not considered a theft in India. We download songs and exchange them without even considering that it is wrong,” he says.

Now,taking a proactive stand against piracy,Tandon has roped in six musicians including Sonu Nigam,Sunidhi Chauhan,Shankar Mahadevan,Shaan and Kailash Kher to come up with Salaami ho jaye,an anti-piracy anthem. The song,which is an “effort to salute creativity”,was released last week by Universal Music. Salaami ho jaye also marks the debut of Asha Bhosle’s granddaughter— Zanai Bhosle,10,— who has sung a small part of the song. “Zanai is extremely talented and her voice lends a beautiful feel to the song,” says Tandon,who has almost 150 jingles to his credit and was the EMI country head before taking up music direction full-time.

“For the first time in the world,a song has been created on anti-piracy. People need to salute creativity,and buy original and legal stuff,” says Shaan. The track is a soft rock anthem,with all the singers singing their solos and coming together as a chorus towards the end. The lyrics,penned by Nikit Pande,goad everyone to respect and salute the artists who spend so much time and emotion on their creative efforts.