Music man with a Midas touch
By Dharam Pal

"YOUR time comes when it has to. You cannot force time. You can’t argue with time because you do not know when it has arrived, says Jawahar Wattal, dynamic music director, who has waited for his time. He has finally arrived on the music scene with the release of Piya Se Milke Aaye Nain Dil Bole Piya Piya. Shankar Sahney’s Yaari Yaari is Wattal’s 50th album. Music lovers know Wattal as music maker who makes stars.

Son of Dr B L Wattal, a former Director of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, and a nephew of the veteran journalist M.L. Kotru, Wattal can look back to a long journey. His journey began with the success of Daler Mehndi. He moved on to Baba Sehgal, Shubha Mudgal, Shweta Shetty, Ali Hyder, Hans Raj Hans, Bhupinder Chawla and the film industries’ celebrated playback singers Hema Sardesai, Poornima and finally to the new Punjabi pop sensation, Shankar Sahney.

Wattal operates from his 24-track, digitalised recording studio AD Camp in Delhi. He believes that the future belongs to those who have the talent alongwith the will to work hard, even after earning a name.

Wattal believes in creating music that has a special feel and which exploits the innate talent of his singers to the fullest. It is this feel for music that has made Wattal the Guru of pop music. Anything that emerges from his studio stands apart from the rest.

Wattal’s career in music began at the age of 15, with jingles. He composed and recorded over 1500 jingles for various companies like Limca, Nestle, Onida, HMT, Nippo Gold, Lufthansa, Sunrise. Working with jingles gave Jawahar two essential elements for a successful album — hook line and recall.

"Honestly, even I was surprised by my success. Who would have wanted to work with a composer from Delhi ? Delhi simply did not figure on the entertainment map of the country. It was just the backyard of Mumbai", says Wattal. His experiment to fuse folk music with the modern started a trend. Today he is a much sought-after music-maker who has always delivered the goods.

According to Wattal, he worked with various music companies which gave him the opportunity to do what was close to his heart — introducing and nurturing new talent. Wattal gave another dimension to music by reintroducing some known artists in new personas. " My biggest gamble was Ali More Angana with Shubha Mudgal. Nobody was happier than I when it did wonders for her career. Then I did the album, Lajo Lajo with Ustad Shujaat Khan, which was critically acclaimed."

"Today," says, Wattal " there is a glut of musical videos but I believe that ultimately a song has to prove itself. If the song does not touch the listeners’ hearts, no matter what pack- aging you devise, what publicity you give, it will sink faster than the Titanic.

To the question as to what he considers his greatest achievement, Wattal reply is that he could make an impact on the Indian pop scene, while siding in Delhi and was able to create a number of stars. Also the Channel V Award for the best music composer of the year ‘98, too was a feather in his cap.

He would like to compose music for Hindi films too but on his own terms. His professional approach has made Wattal a music director much in demand by those who want to cut an album. Hema Sardesai and Poornima have already done albums with him and more artistes from Mumbai have approached him for a break.