Kishore Amati
Over the years, Bollywood has time and
again drawn inspiration from the various folk musical traditions infinitely
available across the length and breadth of India. However, folk artistes have
never experimented to churn out folk versions of popular Bollywood songs. To do
exactly the latter, a crew of UTV Bindaas is travelling across India, meeting
and experimenting with local music artistes and recording a folk version of a
mainstream Bollywood song. As part of this very mission, and after travelling
to places like Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Kolkata, Jaipur and Nagaland, to name a
few, the crew was recently in Goa to imbibe the rich Goan flavour and fuse it
with a Hindi song. In the process, they recorded a song with Goan fadista Sonia
Shirsat and local musicians Orlando Noronha who played the Mandolin, Roque
Lazarus on acoustic bass, Dr Allan Abreo with the classical guitar and Carlos
Gonsalves on percussion.
Sonia, while sharing more information on
the project, says, “The makers of the show wanted a peculiar Goan folk style to
experiment with. In the past, popular music directors have used Goan folk music
forms like Dekhni and Dhulpod to make mainstream music in Bollywood. Perhaps
because of this very reason, and the fact that the makers of the show wanted a
different style altogether, they chose Fado this time around.” Speaking about
the things that went into research, Sonia adds, “Their interest was in raw Goan
culture, not the one that the tourists see. They actually tried to go to old
Goan houses. They wanted the old wooden furniture, chandelier and the glory of
the past, which is not something that most tourists come to Goa to see.” The
crew then located the Figueiredo Mansion in Loutolim and decided to shoot the
video there.
The first day began with a practice session
where the crew gave Sonia a Bollywood song and asked her to experiment and sing
that song in Fado style. Since Fado is an acquired taste, the crew did not want
it to be too classical and they were looking at doing something that would
appeal to the masses. Sonia recalls, “It was a little difficult. On the first
day that we were experimenting, there was a point where all of us went blank.
We were trying and coming up with ideas but suddenly we came to a screeching
halt, not knowing what to do next. The director understood that and called for
a break. When we came back, everything fell into place. All this was also shot and
will be a part of the video.”
Once the team had the song that they
wanted, the next two days were spent recording the track at a studio in Goa. On
the third day, the video of the song was shot at the Figueriedo Mansion. The
interesting outcome of the fusion of Bollywood and Fado will be out there for
everyone to experience when the video will be aired on July 1, 2015 on UTV
Bindaas after which it will also be available on YouTube.
Box:
‘Bollywood Republic’ is a show where the
crew travels to different parts of India that are known for their rich folk
music, and work with the local artistes to record a popular Bollywood song
soaked in local flavour. Before making their way to Goa, the crew recorded
popular songs with Langa, a tribe from Rajasthan famous for their folk music,
thanks to their soulful, full throated voices; sons of the talented Qadar
Niyazi Nizami, the Niyazi Nizami Brothers – Haider, Hasan and Imran from Delhi
who are the new generation of Qawwals destined to carry the legacy of their
musical family that dates back 750 years; Pepsi Sharma (Yashpal) and Kiran
Sharma – artistes who perform the traditional folk style of Haryana called
Ragini; Pammi Bai, a Punjabi Jhumar artist, who has won millions of hearts
across the world with his melodious voice and dance, to name a few.
