Jab We Met Rahul...

Amarjot Kaur

Seems like Bollywood music has come a long way in the last two decades, from Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast of Mohra to the Govinda era, then Aashiqui and Saajan songs to AR Rahman’s experimental Dil Se and the Shankar- Ehsaan-Loy trio dropping fresh tech tunes in Dil Chahata Hai. 

While the rapidly changing times and trends may have led you (quite without your knowing) to the advent of party music, item numbers and of course Honey Singh, Rahul Pandey, who has been in the industry for three years feels that the industry is still a tough cookie for most payback singers to bite into! Having sung a couple of songs in Bollywood, including Jab We Met in the recently released movie, Hero, Rahul has some covers to his credit while he has also juggled with jingles along with Mikey McCleary.

“The thing with Bollywood music is that the composer, producer and director take the final call at the sound that they want in their film. Also, the content of the song stands dictated by the script. It’s like a learning experience,” says Rahul, who hails from Kolkata and is trained in both, western and classical music. As he shares some excerpts from his life that worked in framing his career choice, especially when it comes to music, Rahul goes way back to the time when he was young. 

“Well, when I was young and I would cry, my mother would play music to quieten me. I guess that’s how long music and I go, but my parents asked me to get done with MBA first and then pursue music as a career,” he shares. 

Rahul has been a part of music bands back in his school and college, he shares that it is quite difficult being a Bollywood playback singer. “So, as a playback singer, you never know when the movie will be out or whether the makers will retain the song or not. So, I don’t really talk about any of my projects until I see my name printed on the final CD,” he laughs. 

Well, a good cover up explanation for our next question, about his future projects, Rahul does leave a little sign of his creative tale, which he says is still underway. “I am working on a single and though I can not tell you what it is all about, but it will be out in two months,” he shares. 

As he talks about the independent music scene of India, he says, “Indie music scene gives you more creative freedom as an artiste and that’s what I like about it.” 

And just as we ask him about the issue of royalties that come with big labels, about which artistes like Sonu Nigam have spoken about too, Rahul says, “If the artistes have worked hard on the song, they must get royalties for it and I totally support Sonu and everybody else on this issue,” he signs off.

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