Singers And Their Favourite Composers

Bollywood films can’t survive without good music that often becomes the soul of a film. Much before its release date, a film’s fate is decided by how well its music has been received by the audience, and our singers and music directors get full credit for this. While music lovers have their favourite singers who they can listen to on loop, let’s find out who these singers love to work with. On World Music Day, today, we asked popular playback singers to share what they love the most about their favourite music composers and directors and why they would love to work with them again and again.

Richa Sharma: I loved working with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Pritam and AR Rahman equally. However, one thing I absolutely cherish is working with Rahman in Zubeidaa (2001). I was doing a show in Mumbai, when he called me in the evening and asked, ‘Can you sing a thumri?’, but that was not my genre. I reached the recording studio after the show, dressed in the show’s costume itself, loaded with jewellery, and everybody in that studio was shocked to see me. We all started laughing, and completed the recording in four to five hours. It was such a beautiful composition that youngsters still sing it in reality TV shows!

Hard Kaur: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are amazing, because you get to jam with them. They believe in creating something together, and combine the old school with the new school, with live instruments. They always ask their singers for inputs and ideas. This makes us singers feel really comfortable.

Dev Negi: Pritam da has always been my favourite. I have liked his compositions for a long time, and his work touches your heart. He’s a very nice person, and of course, we are all fans of his music! I find him a very versatile music director and someone who is very updated in terms of sound. Also, he’s a soulful composer. Whatever I know of him, he’s an extremely genuine human being and very down to earth.

Jubin Nautiyal:There are many composers I love working with such as Tanishk Bagchi, Gourav-Roshin, Sajid-Wajid and Rocky-Shiv, but Pritam da and Jeet (Gannguli) da are my favourites. They bring out the best in me and I always get to learn something new whenever I work with them. The best thing I like about them is I get to learn from their vast experience and getting to see music from their eyes is an amazing experience.

Harshdeep Kaur: The first time I worked with AR Rahman sir was in the 2006 film Rang De Basanti on Ik Onkaar. Since it was a prayer, I thought it would be used as the background music somewhere in the movie, and won’t be included in the final album. But to my surprise, when I picked up the film’s album, the first song on the list was my song. While recording it, Rahman sir asked me at what time during the day is this prayer offered. I told him it was sung during the morning time. It was 8 pm when we started, and we finally recorded at 4 am the next morning, when Rahman sir was convinced it as the perfect time to record the prayer.