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Taken from Times of India (Mar 09, 2019)
Bollywood doesn't restrict the creativity of independent musicians: Midival Punditz
by Soumya Vajpayee
Gaurav Raina and Tapan Raj of Midival Punditz |
They are among the pioneers of electronic music in the independent music circuit in India, but Midival Punditz have proven time and again that they can work on film music, too. Known for being associated with several Bollywood projects in the past, including Monsoon Wedding (2001), Closer (2004), Karthik Calling Karthik (2010), Dum Maaro Dum (2011) and Ranveer Singh's latest release, the band's members Gaurav Raina and Tapan Raj don't feel that film music restricts their creativity. Ask them how they decide whether a movie works for them or not, and Tapan tells BT, "Our approach is simple when it comes to films. If the narrative and sensibilities of the movie and director work for us, then we take on the project to lend our music. If we continue to get interesting projects like our latest film (starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt) in the future, we would definitely love to take them on."
Is there a favourite movie genre that they would like to work on over and over, and Gaurav says, "From action and drama to comedy and fantasy - we watch all kinds of films. As long as the story and script is good and we get creative freedom, every film project excites us." While many independent musicians complain of being restricted in terms of creativity when it comes to doing music for films, Midival Punditz think otherwise. "That's not the case with us. We feel, if there is good synergy between the filmmakers and musicians, it works like hand in glove. We have been lucky to be associated with such projects so far and have had no complains. It's important for independent musicians to understand that working on film music is not like making songs for their albums, where they have the narrative of the story of each song. The difference is that in case of scoring for a movie, the narrative is from the writer and director and not from the musician. We just portray our interpretation of their narrative in the form of music, and we don't find that restrictive," says Tapan.
Midival Punditz are content with the sound of Bollywood music these days, and there's nothing they would want to change about it. Gaurav says, "We feel some amazing music has made its way into Bollywood in the recent times. The producers, directors and even the audience are now open to interesting non-formula and experimental music. This is a huge transformation from what the scene was like a decade ago."
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