‘Knowledge of music is important, but ‘rooh’ is gifted by Almighty’

Music directors SajidWajid’s hit compositions have a lot of UP flavour. Both Dabangg films, Bullett Raja, a Holi song for upcoming ‘Family of Thakurganj’ and many others have a taste of the Hindi belt in their compositions.

“Uttar Pradesh se dil juda hua hai apna! My father (Ustad Sharafat Khan, tabla player) comes from Saharanpur. The music of this region, especially folk music, is something which we have grown up listening. There are songs for every occasion. Sehra, shayari, other folk compositions, instrumentals, all that is infused in our blood. So, whenever we get a chance to do a film which is in this region, we try to amalgamate it,” said the younger brother Wajid Khan on his visit to Lucknow.

The composer-singer was here to promote his ongoing singing reality show Saregamapa.

“Like upcoming film ‘Family of Thakurganj’ has a Holi song. The festival of colours is celebrated in a big way here and the way people celebrate in this belt we have tried to give it a similar rhythm. We have given it what we say ‘UP ka tadka’!” he said.

Both Dabangg films were set here and the third in the series is also set to start soon and is also expected to be based in UP. “The sittings for the film have been done. We have almost locked the songs and will be giving a final shape as the film goes on the floor. All including Salman (Khan) bhai, Arbaaz (Khan, producer) are very excited so are we as its being directed by Prabhu Deva, with whom we have worked a lot. The expectations are high as it is the third part,” he said.

Wajid is judging the Zee TV’s reality show for the fourth time. “Sajid bhai is busy with his professional commitments, so I am solely holding the fort in the show. Also, we have finally established our Taaleem Studio which takes a lot of our time,” he said.

He is excited about this season, as it has made some new changes for the first time. “This time we don’t have an age limit, which actually is a good thing, as talent should not be capped by age. So, we have a mom-daughter, a father-daughter, an ustadshagird as contestant. Also, it’s historical as we have Mr India Gay and LGBT flagbearer Sushant Divgikar (Rani Ko-He-Nur) as participant and he is actually very talented,” he said.

Judging reality shows over the years, he feels that today participants are more evolved, trained, groomed and focused, thanks to the approach of parents and awareness. “They are much more confident and competitive. Today’s youth want to learn more, evolve and bounce back with a bang. Like Tanmay (Chaturvedi from Lucknow) was runner-up in Little Champs. He is back in the fray and wants to win this time. So, it’s very interesting times ahead,” he said.

Wajid said that he personally believes in ‘rooh’ (soul) and rhythm over

Uttar Pradesh se dil juda hua hai apna! My father (Ustad Sharafat Khan, tabla player) comes from Saharanpur WAJID KHAN COMPOSERSINGER

everything else, which reflects in their music too. “I believe that one can be well trained, with great knowledge or raag and taal but if a contestant’s singing or music does not connect with the soul, then it’s of no use. Raag-raagni and everything else is important but ‘rooh’ that touches hearts, is gifted by the Almighty,” he said.

HT PHOTO