Tuesday 31 December 2013

Meet the Men who created Background Score & Sound Designing for Sholay 3-D - Entertainment Trade

Monday 30 December 2013

New tracks for 3-D Sholay - Afternoon Despatch & Courier

New tracks for 3-D Sholay

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Film and entertainment journalist Chaitanya Padukone writes in to mark a special day:

Lakhs of ardent RDB fans the world over will be celebrating the occasion, listening and dancing to his evergreen chartbusters. But one diehard RDB fan for whom this day is extra-special is prolific composer – singer Raju Singh, who has been specially invited by the popular Pune-based Pancham Magic fan club, to share nostalgic anecdotes.

That’s because the techno-savvy melody-wizard has been assigned the tough task of recreating the audio-tracks of cult film Sholay, for its upcoming 3-D version. Raju is enthusiastic. “Its all thanks to Panchamda’s blessings and the timely references of Javed Akhtar saab and my associate sound designers Kunal Mehta and Parikshit Lalwan, that I have been assigned the challenging responsibility of replicating and recreating the background music sound tracks of Sholay, for its upcoming 3-D version which is to be released by August this year.”

For the re-creation, they have used the latest hi-tech Dolby Atmos surround sound acoustics which apparently promise a “mind-blowing feel-the-music experience” to movie goers.

Raju himself is an expert guitar player who has had the privilege of playing for RDB’s song recordings and background scores for nearly six years up to 1993. This includes the late maestro’s iconic swansong ‘1942: A Love Story’.

Raju nostalgically explains, “Since my father Charanjit Singh, an acclaimed electronic keyboards player, used to regularly play for RDB’s recordings, as a kid, I used to attend those sessions. That’s how Panchamda became fond of me and pampered me with chocolates every time. Many years later, when I started playing bass guitar, he insisted that I join his team of musicians. For me it was a dream come true. It was such a passionate pleasure jamming with the genius RDB and his team, since he would constantly come up with tunes and conjure up bizarre sound effects. Even after I joined him, he would still bring chocolates for me.”

‘Sholay’ star Dharmendra is also all praise for the meticulous mission to re-create the audio tracks of the film for the 3-D version.. Reveals Raju, “We happened to be in the same studios where Dharamji’s YPD-2 recordings were also taking place. It was such a huge accolade for us when, with tears in his eyes, he remarked that the 3-D Sholay with its awesome acoustics would be an ideal gift to the centenary of Indian Cinema,” he added.

We’ve come a long way, baby!
Let’s face it. Traveling by our locals is an ordeal. Trying to buy a season ticket is a seemingly bigger one. And we are so pleased to report that this is now, officially, a breeze that wafts to you online!

A couple of weeks ago, we began our first long-term adventure with local trains and decided to opt for a first class pass. Standing at dirty, mucky Kurla station in the queue for a pass was definitely not appealingly, so we spoke to a friend who said she used the IRCTC website to book her pass.

Prepared to encounter the worst, we logged on, created an ID, entered stations and waited with bated breath, ready for something to go wrong. Two seconds later, we were redirected to the payment page, checked internet banking as the payment option and voila, we were done!

If the online process wasn’t enough to leave us amazed, the delivery process did. The spanking new season ticket reached us within two days, in a clean white glazed envelope with a label properly printed with the correct name and address.

The railways are generally at the receiving end of our ire, but when it comes to customer service in this case, they get an A+.

Link - http://www.afternoondc.in/dairy/new-tracks-for-3-d-sholay/article_86748

Saturday 28 December 2013

Lights, Camera, Action!

Parikshit gets a call that changed our life!

The story so far: You know that we were just a bunch of ordinary blokes bobbing around till the Universe decided that we must put our secret super-powers to good use and work on recreating the Sound of Sholay... But if doing the impossible wasn't enough, Parikshit got a call that made sure that an entire army of butterflies started camping in our stomachs... We were to do a photo shoot!

Serious contemplation

We know we are kind cute (actually chicks dig us ;-P), but a photoshoot required careful planning. Parikshit needed more colour in his wardrobe (he just wears black and blue... some inexplicable Saanwariya hangover), Kunal actually shuddered at the thought of having to wear formal trousers, but Raju maintained that no matter what he wore, the girls would only drool over his goofy grin. So we retired for the night only to face the arc lights the following day.

We're the cool dudes

It was actually a lot of fun! Us three, just being ourselves, having fun while the camera went clickity-click-click. Parikshit aced it. He's a natural!

Yeah! It's all under control

Finally our whole team, even our producers joined in the fun. The next gen Sippys are something else. Not only can they spot talent and take risks, they also know how to make their people feel special. Sholay 3D wouldn't have happened without Shaan Uttam Singh and Shehzaad Sippy.

Say hello to the team

Stay tuned for more pictures from our photoshoot.

Sholay 3D

Friday 27 December 2013

Sneak Peek into the music of Sholay 3-D - Sound Box

Buzz

Sneak Peek into the music of Sholay 3-D

by Swagata Panjari (December 23, 2013)

Sholay is a landmark film, but would you watch the 3-D version? With impeccable composing, sound mixing and designing by Raju Singh Panesar, Kunal Mehta and Parikshit Lalwan, the Dolby Atmos effects had made a huge difference to the soundscape. Sound Box gets a sneak peek into the making of this mammoth project to watch out for

When Sholay was being re-made in 3-D, it aroused many emotions among its fans, the media and the film/music industry alike. There were doubts, cynicism, opposition and also proposition to do it in a certain fashion. Some did not approve the idea and were repelled by the very thought, “Arre it is Sholay! How dare anyone remake it?” But now that the deed has been done, the question is to see how this offering is different.

The Magical Burman

Burman da’s genius is evident through Sholay. Recorded in the 1970s with limited resources, compositions such as Mehbooba Mehbooba and Yeh Dosti continue to mesmerise music composers and aficionados alike. While it is a challenge in itself to remake the original songs, the complexities are now audible and rather heightened. The music directors Raju Singh Panesar, Kunal Mehta and Parikshit Lalwan have doctored the original soundscape with the help of Dolby Atmos 7.1. One can now catch every sound easily — from shattering of glass in the track Jab Tak Hai Jaan, to the whistling of the steam engine in the first half of the film.

On a Musical Quest

Imitating styles and mannerisms is always a task; and when the project demands exact replication of someone as legendary as RD Burman, the stake rises music higher. One has to pick a composer who can do justice to the project, by bringing freshness yet keeping the essence of the movie intact.

Stating that choosing a music composer was not an easy job, the film distributor and presenter Jayantilal Gada Chairman of Pen India mentions, “We had a qualification test to have best music director, and asked composers to send a sample of their work. Some denied sending the samples, while we didn’t like the work of some others. We decided to offers the project to Raju Singh Panesar after going through his portfolio.”

Though Panesar had an opportunity to work with Burman da earlier, refining the soundtrack of Sholay was still the most challenging task. “Sholay is not just known for its screenplay but also for its music. We had to be careful as everyone remembers the film. We did not want to mess with the authenticity of the film, and neither of the producers wanted to edit the film. Receiving a project that not only deals with recomposing the music, but the whole film was the most exciting yet challenging job,” shares Panesar. The director’s work and credibility was also vouched for and recommended by the writer of Sholay, Javed Aktar. “Kunal and Parikshit were approached first, and I am grateful that Javedji recommended me for the project. After that, the producers asked us to work on the train sequence of the film to see what we can do. We took 20 days to submit the sample edit,” says Panesar.

Replicating the Soundscape

There was a time when audio cassettes of Sholay were played in every nook and corner of the country, to such an extent that people knew each dialogue, scene-by-scene by heart. Even when Dolby launched their format, the Atmos, a sound designer apparently asked, “If weare watching Sholay then how will the coin toss sound?” That makes Sholay a landmark reference in its own right.

Mehta reveals that they only had the main print and not the separate dialogue and music tracks to work on. The sound designers filtered the dialogues before working on the music track, without employing any new dubs and that took almost eight months. Produced 36 years ago, the mixing style of the film was also very different. The dialogue track had music as well, but one cannot hear it as the film was produced with four stereos. As 3-D conversion added finesse, eliminating dialogue track music was not an easy job for them. They couldn’t eliminate everything from the dialogue, and instead had to camouflage some portions. The producers had to restore the negative film first and upgrade it to HD (high definition), and then go into the conversion process, to rework the sound

Lalwan reveals, “At times, the tracks were so meticulously placed that it was difficult to figure whether the dialogue has music or not. How will you know if there is music behind the dialogue? We had to hear each frame repeatedly and if there was sound, we had to

insert, shift, play, and detune the music, as we cannot do much. Sometimes, we pitched the dialogue too. It took almost a year to finish the design, so that people don’t feel it is all mixed. ” India’s first female re-recording mixing engineer Geeta Gurappa from Media artists, Chennai has mixed the film.

Amplification of sound due to Dolby Atmos 7.1 mix and stereoscopic sound was another added concern for the trio. “Earlier, the sound was audible only through the side speaker. But now, high end technology has added height to the sound; one can hear the music from the top as well,” Mehta points out.

For a composer, it is always grueling to work on a defined sound palette as it limits their creativity. It is even more challenging when one has to work on a decade old cult, classic sound and replicate the work of a legend. In order to retain similarity, Panesar had to record everything on a keyboard and mark each portion. The task took two months. It was only then that he replaced the acoustic and checked what was played, which instruments were used. “We sketched the procedure by working on 10 to 20 seconds of a section, and then rewinded to see if it was seamless. We had to recompose some portions, as the music wasn’t audible in some sections. We have no new dubs; the music and effects are exactly the same,” Panesar says.

Rewinding To An Era

It was also a task for the trio to recreate sounds of that particular era such as that of guns and steam engines.

So, how did they generate the sounds that were no longer in use?

“In the track song Mehbooba, Burman da had used a customized instrument; the sound of the same instrument was also used for Gabbar’s theme. We tried to replicate it on electronic, but couldn’t, so we found the person who made the instrument. Unfortunately, he passed away, so we got in touch with his son and thankfully he it. That’s how we replicated the sound,” divulges Lalwan. He further adds, “Also, we have kept the voice on centre track and got musicians to play with it. The crystal wasn’t there in old times everything was handheld, so the tempo was very random. We created surround sound with the help of live musicians. The violinists who played were the children of the violinists of the original film.”

Sholay is dear to everyone, and working on the movie not only motivated the composer or designers but the whole crew. Giving an instance on how their foley guy actually bled for obtaining the exact sound, Panesar shares, “The people in the industry are quite emotional when it comes to Sholay. For the track Jab Tak Hai Jaan Main Nachungi, the foley guy took off his shoes for the acquiring the sound of crushing of glass, as we could not get the proper sound when he was dancing with his shoes on.”

Financial Engagement

To re-introduce the 70s classic film Sholay in a 3-D format, producer Jyantilal Gada has invested approximately Rs 25 crore in the project. Stating that they wanted to provide viewers the best experience, Gada says, “Sholay is a cult classic and popular among Indians. The Indian public loves the movie, and we didn’t want to fall short of the audience’s expectations. While remaking the movie, we made sure that we would bring out a fine product. We didn’t want to compromise on any element. We employed the best technology at high cost for the same.” Since Sholay is widely known for its music and background score, Gada further stated that he has invested approximately one crore in remaking the music of the film.

Link - http://www.soundbox.co.in/sneak-peak-into-the-music-of-sholay-3-d/2/

Sholay 3D

Raju Singh on re-creating the sound of Sholay -By Rajiv Vijayakar, Bollywood Hungama

Movie Features

Raju Singh on re-creating the sound of Sholay

By Rajiv Vijayakar, Dec 25, 2013 - 08:09 IST

You could call the honor pre-destined and otherwise very appropriate. His father, eminent veteran musician Charanjit Singh, had worked as a musician on Sholay with R.D. Burman, and now Raju Singh is re-doing the sound of the songs and background score of the 3D version that is set to release on January 3, 2014.

Composer Raju Singh has been best known for his imaginative remix albums in the late '90s as well as some standout original albums like Alka Yagnik's Tum Yaad Aayeand Jagjit Singh's Unique later. He got his biggest fame as one of Hindi cinema's finest background music composers (Chandni Bar, Ishq Vishk, Page 3 and almost all films of the Bhatts including Zeher, Gangster and Raaz 3 to this year's biggest hit Aashiqui 2. He has also been composer in a few films, like Khichdi - The Movie, and has composed the title songs or music of cult shows like Indian Idol, C.I.D. and Boogie-Woogie, besides doing jingles galore.

In a freewheeling chat at his Juhu home, Raju Singh Panesar, to give his full name, enlightens us on the Sholay experience.

Destiny apart, how did you land up with Sholay?
Kunal Mehta and Parikshat Sahni, who are eminent in this field as Sound Designers, were approached by the Sippys family that has converted the film into 3D. They suggested my name for the music. Jayantibhai Gada, who is presenting the film, happened to call Javed-saab for something else, and since he was one ofSholay's writers, asked him what he thought of me. Javed-saab told him, "Trust Raju with your eyes closed!" I owe this assignment to Javed-saab as much as to my colleagues!

We - Kunal, Parikshit and I - then made a demo of the train sequence and Gabbar Singh's entry, and we were on! And it is very gratifying to know that Gada-ji has been praising me to the skies everywhere!

What was your initial thought when asked to do this film?
The first thought was that this was my way of reconnecting with Pancham-da, the man who taught me so much. In his last phase, I had worked with him for over seven years, apart from his long association with my father. I was never approached by anyone to talk about Pancham-da tributes, but now it seemed as if he had reserved his best for me and decided that "Mera baccha Raju Singh hi Sholay karega!"

We were very clear that the music would not be changed into anything modern and just be a restoration of his work, so my credit reads "Music Re-Composed and Re-Created by Raju Singh".

Having said that, the foremost emotion was anxiety - about living up to the film and Pancham-da in India's greatest-ever film! At that point of time, none of us three knew what kind of creative freedom, time and money would be available to us. But both Gada and the Sippys gave us everything that we wanted and the film needed. Today, after 18 months of painstaking efforts, we three feel blessed for being the chosen ones!

Did you get anyone from the original team on board?
No, most of them are no more. But we took guidance from key names who were with Pancham-da on the film who are, however, not active today - like Kersi Lord, and like singer Bhupinder Singh, who had played the guitar in the opening sequence. My father is otherwise active but here he only guided me when asked for advice.

And how did you go about restoring Sholay?
For every advantage we had, like Dolby Atmos Sound and better reverb machines, we faced some grave and real challenges.

The foremost was the problem that there is only one print that is now existing with the Sippys. And music was missing either for seconds or a couple of minutes from many parts! One example was that despite the film being in Stereophonic Sound, as the train sound increased in the robbery sequence, the music could no longer be heard! So I had to compromise on my resolve not to use electronics and program the whole film on my keyboard along with my musician Sourabh, and then imagine and replicate what must have been there in those gaps and insert it just right.

But the biggest handicap was the fact that power supply used to fluctuate in the '70s. So, unlike today, when we use a click track for the timing, those tiny ups and downs in the current used to minutely alter the speed of the tape up and down and this would change the pitch! For the lay audience it was barely noticeable, but we noticed it more and had to work upon it.

What else?
We kept the original song or sound track in the center and reproduced the music with live musicians. Yogesh Pradhan was of invaluable help in the notations. The song 'Mehbooba O Mehbooba' in particular was very much affected and needed a lot of work.

What Kunal and Parikshit did was clean the entire track, removing the background music, songs and sound effects, so that only the dialogues were left - we had thought of getting the dialogues dubbed but gave up the idea as many actors were dead and we did not want mimics. This laborious process took us seven months! Then we had to work on our add-on tracks and put everything back in. We also had to do six months of acoustic work in music at Chennai's Media Artistes Studio with Geeta Kurupa. When we started out, we did not know what level of perfection we could achieve, but I think we have managed, thanks to Sascha, Shehzad and Shaan from the Sippy clan, who understood what we were after and stood by us in providing or facilitating everything.

Any standout memories in these months?
Oh, there were plenty! Remember that electric scene where Sanjeev Kumar comes with gifts and finds his whole family massacred that swinging jhoola, the wind blowing and Gabbar against the landscape?

For the music for Sanjeev's walk to his home, a very unusual 'instrument' had been invented by Pancham-da! He had got iron rods welded all around a car differential (the ball-like structure under the chassis) that was filled with water, so that when they were strummed with a violin string, a specific pitch - which you have heard in the film - is emitted. As far as we knew, this 'instrument' was never used in any film again. Thanks to my musician friend Sameer Phatarphekar, we traced the son of the late musician who had played it and actually got him to play it for us!

Another incredible feat was one of our team members actually dancing barefoot on glass fragments in our studio to reproduce Hema Malini's climactic dance, because nothing else could have got us that identical sound!

Finally, since the credits for all the new names involved in the 3D version have been placed against a black frame even before the original and much-loved opening credits, I decided to musically connect the two parts with a flugelhorn that was played by Kishore Sodha and pads. They flow seamlessly into Bhupinder-ji's guitar in the original.

We heard that Dharmendra was very moved when he saw the completed film.
I was actually working on the background music of Dharam-ji's Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 when I showed him some sequences and what I had done. He was almost in tears and said, "This is the best possible gift to 100 years of Indian cinema."

Article Link: http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/features/type/view/id/5946

Saturday 21 December 2013

Creative Sound Design

Kunal Mehta

Kunal and Parikshit are nothing short of demi-gods in the sound industry. The awesome twosome have conceptualized and designed sound for hundreds of movies in multiple Indian languages. The boys really know how to add boom to block-busters as evidenced in their latest outing Goliyon Ki Raas Leela Ram Leela.

The two are also virtually inseparable. They always work together, a strategy that has worked well for the talented duo.

Explains Parikshit, "We work in sync with each other. There are things Kunal can handle better and there are some things I can handle more deftly."

Adds Kunal, "Sholay was a test of our talent and it was only because we stuck together and constantly encouraged each other that we were able to take on such a huge challenge."

The duo had near-insurmountable odds against them with the original unmixed version of the movie having gone up in flames in a freak accident in London two years ago. Plus there were challenges in recreating the sound of many things that are no longer in existence.

Parikshit Lalvani

Parikshit elaborates, "We don't have steam engines today and we had to create the sound associated with the puffing out of the smoke, the chugging of the engine and the clatter and clang of the wheels on the track from the scratch!"

"Sometimes, we would spend days together in our Chennai studio. Feel happy at the end product. Then hear it after a while and realize it is not working and then spend a few more days re-doing everything", shares Kunal.

The product of their efforts is Sholay 3D which is being released in Dolby Atmos on Jan 3, 2014. When you watch the movie, remember, there are the boys behind the Sound of Sholay 3D.

An Audacious Attempt

Raju Singh

I was overjoyed when I was given the opportunity to compose music for Sholay 3D. But as the days went by, my enthusiasm began to give way to trepidation. I was after all expected o walk in the footsteps of the legendary RD Burman.

This was Sholay 3D... The objective was to make it bigger and better without eroding the soul of the original. There was no way we could improve on perfection. It would be sacrilege to attempt to even change a note from the original. Yet, I had to recreate the music, as the original print had undergone much wear and tear and the music was barely audible in many places.

The challenges were near insurmountable, as back in the day when Sholay was made, the entire group of musicians would play to the hand movement of a single conductor, who would stand before them, guiding them.

Today, we have equipment to time each beat and rhythm, but when Sholay was made rhythm depended on the rise and fall of the human hand! Add to that electrical fluctuations that would leave their own signature on the recording.

Raju Singh

We had to recreate the music from the scratch, ensuring that the flaws were maintained, so that the true character of the music could be preserved. These flaws actually added to the beauty of the music and without them the sound of Sholay 3D would sound hollow and emotionless.

I'm grateful to the producers of Sholay 3D for placing so much faith in me and letting me take on challenges like recreating the magic of Mehbooba-Mehbooba. You have no idea how many sleepless nights I have spent on that one! The press has always been eager to write the obituary of anyone who messes up an RD number.

Then of-course was the challenge of the melancholy mouth-organ that Jai played. I actually used three different people to play the instrument and still somewhere deep down inside, I felt that something was missing.

It is now upto the audience to decide... My dear movie lovers... Go watch Sholay 3D on Jan 3... and tell me if you feel the magic.