When Pan Nalin, the director of the film ‘Chhello Show’, informed Panjim-based Ashish Prabhu Ajgaonkar about the requirement of a track for the film which was to be delivered within a day, Ashish had no inkling that the film would be selected as the Indian entry for the 95th Academy Awards. Still astonished about this fact, he is soaking in the joy of putting in over a decade of hard work to reach this stage in his musical career.
Written and directed by Pan Nalin, the
film is produced by Dheer Momaya, Pan Nalin, Siddharth Roy Kapur and Marc
Duale. The music for the film is by Cyril Morin and the original song is
composed and produced by Ashish Prabhu Ajgaonkar and sung by Khushboo
Haldankar. ‘Chhello Show’ revolves around a young boy in rural Gujarat, who is
enchanted by the power of cinema. The 2021 Gujarati-language film stars Bhavin
Rabari, Bhavesh Shrimali, Richa Meena, Dipen Raval and Paresh Mehta. The film
premiered at the 20th Tribeca Film Festival on June 10, 2021 and was
theatrically released in India on October 14, 2022. This film was selected as
the Indian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy
Awards 2023.
India has sent 55 films to the competition and only three Indian
films, ‘Mother India’ (1957), ‘Salaam Bombay!’ (1988) and ‘Lagaan’ (2001) have
been nominated for the Academy Awards. The last entry at the 94th Academy
Awards 2022 was ‘Pebbles’, a Tamil film.
“I had initially submitted a small track for the film which was
used for the trailer of the film. I got a call from Pan Nalin at 5 pm and he
said that he wanted to make the track into a full fledged song as the producers
were on board and the film had to be submitted for final mix immediately. I had
just one day to complete the song with composing, recording, producing and
mixing the track. I immediately started composing the song as it didn’t have lyrics
earlier and composed the music by 3 am. I got in touch with my friends, Vijay
Pujari and Rohit Nazir, who formed the backup voices for the song and Vijay
introduced me to Khushboo Haldankar, the lead singer in the song. We started
recording the song by 11 am in a friend’s studio. That was followed by putting
the song together and I sent the song in right on time. As they say, ‘You don’t
have to compose a masterpiece every time’, I had very less time to create
this,” says Ashish, who composes music including advertising jingles and
background scores.
A noted music composer and producer, Ashish works from his home
itself. A commerce graduate from Dempo College of Commerce and Economics,
Panjim, his heart was set on music right from Class 11. He loves playing
percussion instruments especially the dholak, tabla and even attended formal
training in tabla. “I love music and I was part of live orchestras when I was
young. Since 2001, I started producing music on my computer with simple open
source softwares. When Orkut was launched, I immediately started sharing my
love for music online and I got in touch with many music producers who were
just starting their careers in Bollywood. Shadab Rayeen, has been my online
mentor and Vamsi Krishna, composer in the Telugu film industry,” he explains.
After graduation, he moved to Mumbai but returned to Goa after
spending only few weeks there. “I had good connections online through different
social media platforms but I didn’t do any ground work before heading to Mumbai
and no one entertains you in the city of dreams unless you have connects in the
industry. I continued working on my music from Goa itself. In 2011, my friend,
Navin Chandra Ganesh, a Mumbai based filmmaker, informed me about a film
shooting in Goa and put me in touch with Pan Nalin. Since then, we have been
working together. It has been a decade of learning and connecting,” says
Ashish, as he reminisces about his journey in music.
Previously, Ashish worked with Pan for his film, ‘Angry Indian
Goddesses’, for which he composed the music and produced the song, ‘Dil Dola
Re’. ‘Chhello Show’ was shot before the pandemic but the post production work
started in 2021. The film was earlier released for the pre screening for
celebrities and after its official premiere, it was screened in 95 theatres all
across the country for the price of just Rs 95, to mark the selection of the
film for the Oscar 2023. “Unfortunately, the film was not screened in Goa. The
film was released Pan India. You need a certain budget to make a film that you
can present at the Academy Awards even if it is not a high budget film. We were
surprised that it was selected among so many films of the year but I truly
loved the movie as it has a different point of view,” says Ashish.
This
news has given Ashish a boost to continue working in the music industry, which
can be done even from his bedroom in Panjim. “I want to give more opportunities
to Goans and expose their talent on the national and international stage,” says
Ashish, with optimism, as he awaits the next round of selection for ‘Chhello
Show’ to make it to the Top 5 nominations for the Best International Feature
Film category at the 95th Academy Awards 2023.