Golden Hain Kalaiyaan

IN the ’80s, a Guinness Book record for 37 films in a year. Today, just two albums annually. Things have slowed. Yet, when you inform m...

IN the ’80s, a Guinness Book record for 37 films in a year. Today, just two albums annually. Things have slowed. Yet, when you inform music composer Bappi Lahiri about a photo shoot, he smiles and says, ‘‘I’ll go wear the jewellery and come.’’ Some things never change.

‘‘When I came into the industry, there were many well known music directors. But everyone knew them by name, not face. I wanted to create an image,’’ explains the man whose name still conjures up heavy gold chains and shades.

There are other things that don’t change. The art of incorporating a beat, for instance—whether it be giving Indian music a western twist or vice versa. And the performer-cum-composer continues to do both. The folksy, ‘Raag Darbari-based’ Gori Hain Kalaiyaan has a new twist in his remix album Bappi’s Magic, while Bikram Lounge, recently released in the US, is a fusion of ‘‘Russian, Spanish, Japanese and Sanskrit including the Gayatri mantra’’.

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‘‘Bappa (his son) told me ‘you are the asli baap of mix,’’’ says Lahiri, who picked 10 of his favourite songs for the album. ‘‘At one time everyone accused me of copying Western music, today remixes have their own category,’’ adds the 51-year-old who is widely considered the father of the disco trend in India. Remember Disco Station, Koi Yahan Aaha Naache Naache, Jimmy Jimmy…?

But romantic songs by Lahiri were a hit too, so why the sudden shift? ‘‘It wasn’t a conscious decision. In Suraksha, the director told me the character was a combination of John Travolta and Bruce Lee. Which is how I made the music accordingly… Mausam Hai Gaane Ka,’’ sings Lahiri whose last song on film was heard in the Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Salman Khan-starrer Hum Tumhare Hai Sanam last year and whose next is a Priyanka Chopra-Govinda film Ek Haseena Ek Deewana. There’s an album of fresh love songs coming up with Kumar Sanu and Alka Yagnik as well as a Bappi’s Bengali hip hop. And after the background score for Dev Anand’s Love at Times Square, he’s composed songs for the veteran’s Song of Life as well.

His own life full of songs, 430 films in 32 years to be exact, and the song Chalte Chalte seems pretty apt. It’s one of his favourites too. ‘‘I was just two years in the industry, I wasn’t Bappi Lahiri yet. But when we recorded this song, Kishoreda sat and heard it not less than seven times. ‘Bappi, tune toh maar diya sixer,’ he said,’’ recalls Lahiri, breaking into song again. Years later, another number made for a touching memory. ‘‘When Kishore Kumar heard Manzilein Apni Jaga Hain, he cried,’’ he says, adding that Kishoreda was an inspiration.

Other inspirations notwithstanding, from southern style music to foot-tapping westerns to folk, from Tohfa Tohfa to Tamma Tamma to Humko Aaj Kal Hai Intezaar, the discs on the walls tell their own story. ‘‘People heard Bappi Lahiri’s songs in the ’80s, they heard them in the ’90s and even now the songs are being heard as remixes,’’ says Lahiri.

The image too is intact in the collective mind if his recent nomination for the MTV Lycra Style Awards is anything to go by. ‘‘It felt very good. I was the seniormost among all the nominees,’’ he smiles as his ring-laden fingers move deftly across the piano and he goes on to lament the lack of ‘original music’ in recent years.

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But worry not. ‘‘I experimented in the ’80s. And I’m working hard to give something new now.’’ And there’s one more dream. ‘‘The day I get news that my music has been nominated for a Grammy, bas that’s it.’’