Making of Holi Ke Din

This was a fun song with lots of colour and music. The challenge was in recreating the music while retaining the spirit of this song. Watch how we did it.

Making of Holi ke Din

The Magic of Mehbooba

This was one of our greatest challenges, as we knew, if we got even one note wrong, it would get us enough criticism to wash away decades of good work in the music industry. Watch how we recreated the magic of Mehbooba-Mehbooba

Mehbooba-Mehbooba

Jai's melancholy harmonica tune

Jai and Radha did not interact with each other much by talking. This is why the harmonica tune that Jai plays each night as Radha turns off the lamps is a form of communication between the two. Watch how we created the magic of that haunting melody.

Jai Plays the Harmonica for Radha

Thankyou Mumbai Mirror

That's Mumbai Mirror's article on out journey as we recreated The Sound of Sholay

What Godfather is to Hollywood, Sholay is for the Hindi cinema," says sound designer Kunal Mehta, who with Parikshit Lalwani and music composer Raju Singh, meticulously redesigned the sound of Sholay in its recent 3D avatar over two years. "For many Sholay is a religion. We couldn't go wrong. The idea was to upgrade the quality while retaining the soul."

It was an arduous task as the original print of the 1975 classic wasn't in good condition which made it nearly impossible to reconstruct the sound. To add to their woes, it came with a mixed soundtrack. To work on the background score, Raju had to separate it from the dialogues.

"It was like separating sugar, milk and water after the tea has been brewed. We somehow managed to do it using state-of-the-art software. Also we had a generous budget which was used judiciously," Raju explains.

How did he recreate the score? "We used the same instruments that were used during the mixing of the original film - whether it was the violin, sitar, shehnai or the mouth organ," Kunal says.

They hit a roadblock when they couldn't get the sound of the steam engine, in the famous opening scene, right. "My mind was blocked, I had looked everywhere. Then one day, in the kitchen, I heard the pressure cooker go off with a loud whistle. It was the Eureka moment."

Another scene that gave them sleepless nights was the one in which Basanti dances on glass shreds. "We just couldn't get the sound right. Finally a team member pointed out that there was only one way to do it - somebody had to walk on glass. And one of our sound guys actually did so," adds Kunal.

The 3D conversion started in 2011. Hemant Shinde who oversaw the VFX, admits that it was scary in the beginning. But the team at Ketan Mehta's Maya Digital Studio painstakingly worked towards converting this dream project into reality, taking references from films like Alice in Wonderland and Avatar.

"We thought the action and chase sequences would be difficult, but even a simple romantic scene between Amitji (Amitabh Bachchan) and Jayaji (Bachchan) was quite challenging as the right depth had to be created," he says. "During the process, I must have seen the film over a 100 times, many times sans sound! But after each viewing, I was moved to tears. We don't make such films anymore," he signs off.

******************************

Dear Roshmila and Ankur,

Thankyou for this lovely article. We are glad to see you are as passionate about Sholay as we are.

Warm regards,

Team Sholay 3D

DNA's Sarita Tanwar Reviews Sholay 3D

Film review: 'Sholay' 3D - The epic adventure is back, rush to the screens now!

Film: Sholay
Rating: *****
Directed: Ramesh Sippy
Starring: Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini,
Jaya Bhaduri and Amjad Khan

When Sholay first hit the screens in 1975, it was pegged as the greatest story ever
told and  the greatest star cast ever assembled. 39 years later, nothing has changed.
A film, that’s quite easily the most influential movie-going experience of our times,
does not need a review. So let’s just stick to an update only for the enjoyment of
reliving the adventure.

The legendary story of Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar) who hires two small-time
crooks, Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra) to fight the might of Gabbar
Singh (Amjad Khan) is back – and this time,  in 3D. For those who didn’t get the chance
to watch this epic drama when it was first released in 70mm and  stereophonic sound,
now is the time. That’s because no amount of DVDs and Blu Rays can ever do justice
 to the magnificence and the opulence of Sholay on the big screen. Plus, the novelty of
watching it in 3D brings  a different flavour to all those unforgettable scenes, dialogues
and characters that will be etched in our memories forever.

Be prepared for the ride of your lives – it’s time to rejoice the everlasting dosti between
Jai and Veeru; the hysterical antics of Basanti (Hema Malini); the silent love of Radha
(Jaya Bhaduri); the emotional resilience of Thakur and the awe-inspiring aura of Gabbar.
Not to mention the varied other characters in the movie that became  an integral part of
film history – Sambha (Macmohan), Soorma Bhopali (Jagdeep), Jailor (Asrani), Kaaliya
(Viju  Khote) and many others.

The 3D conversion could’ve been more polished for a film of this stature. Still, the effect
is spellbinding. The train sequence (still the best train sequence ever shot in Hindi cinema)
is the highlight – new effects have been added to enhance the 3D element. With a length
of over 3 hours, the 3D gets tiresome in parts but the sheer grandeur of the film keeps
you going. The songs and background score have been re-created by Raju Singh and
that’s a huge plus in the new version. Without losing the essence of the original, Singh
delivers a spectacular punch. Technically, Sholay 3D is par excellence – it’s great to see
a crystal-clear, polished version of your favourite film in a new avatar.

Sholay is also a prominent film because of the people associated with it. Director
Ramesh Sippy is remembered to date, for this offering, which remains unparalleled
even in his career. Salim-Javed, the greatest writer duo India has known, consider it one
of their finest works. RD Burman’s music, Dwarka Divecha’s cinematography,
MS Shinde’s editing and Ram Yedekar’s production design continue to remain a class
apart.

India’s epic adventure is back – rush to the screens now!

Watch the trailer: 

Dear Sarita,
We are grateful for this generous review. Thankyou for recognizing the technical 
team's hard work. We are glad you loved our movie.
Sincerely,
Team Sholay 3D

R. D. Burman - A Legend

R.D. Burman - A Legend
Mid Day - R. D. Burman

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

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.

The New look of Sholay 3D

The Team at Work in Different Locations

Kunal Mehta and Ms Gita Gurappa at Chennai Studion

Parikshit Lalvani  & Ms. Gitta Gurappa at Chennai Studio

Raju Singh and Gabbar at Chennai Sudio

Parikshit Lalvani,  Kunal Mehta and Raju Singh

Kunal Mehta, Raju Singh, Parikshit Lalvani at Sunny Super Sound

Parikshit Lalvani, Shahzaad Sippy, Raju Singh and Kunal Mehta at Sunny Super Sound

Raju Singh, Kunal Mehta and Parikshit Lalvani salute Gabbar

Raju Singh, Kunal Mehta and Parikshit Lalvani's Dosti at Sunny Super Sound

The mysterious instrument used to create the haunting sounds in Sholay

Raju Singh working on the music of Sholay 3D at Joshua Inc

Raju Singh pulls the right strings to recreate the magic of Sholay 3D

Musicians record for the Sound of Sholay 3D

Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Todenge

Three's Company

Raju Singh Panesar composes for Sholay 3D

Soundbox reported on our sound and music for Sholay 3D

Nervous Anticipation

Moment of Truth: Reviewing our work with unparalleled intensity
From L to R: Shahzad Sippy, Raju Singh and Kunal Mehta

New Tracks for Sholay 3D

Afternoon DC article on our work on Sholay 3D

A Tale of Two Singhs

When Gabbar met Raju
Music Composer Raju Singh working on recreating Gabbar Singh's terror

The Team with Dharam ji

A few cherished moments spent with Dharam ji. His blessings saw us through this very challenging project. When he heard the sound finally, he had tears in his eyes.
L to R: Kunal Mehta, Shaan Uttam Singh, Sascha Sippy, Dharmendra ji, Shahzaad Sippy and Parikshit Lalvani

Sholay Begins

Spiderman said, "With great power comes great responsibility." We vividly remember the day when we were given the great responsibility of designing and engineering the entire sound of Sholay. The 1975 cult classic was to be re-leased in 3D and the producers saw merit in making it sound contemporary... and they chose us for the job!

This was an honour reserved for Gods. We felt powerful. We also knew, that should we fail, all our past successes would come to a naught. Raju Singh, Parikshit Lalvani and Kunal Mehta would go down in history as the boys who messed up Sholay! That is a thought that manifests itself in ulcers, migraines and nightmares. 

As we looked at each other, we saw fear... a very real fear... a very contagious fear that leaped from one set of eyes into another and made its way into each of our hearts with a certainty that we felt run down our spines... You see, Sholay is not a movie... it is a religion, an emotion... a way of life. Sholay was a story we grew up with, the way we grew up reading our religious texts. Jai, Veeru, Basanti were a part of our smiles, while grandmothers put many of us to sleep saying, "So ja, varna Gabbar Singh aa jayega..."

But it wasn't just Thakur or Soorma Bhopali or Sambha... Even Sound was a character in Sholay. Every little sound from the gun shots, to the chugging of the train's engine in the beginning, to the unforgettable coin toss... said something profound. Even silence spoke in the moments before Rahim Chacha asked, "Itna sannata kyon hai bhai?"... Viewers felt Basanti's pain as they heard her dainty bare feet crush glass as she danced over broken bottles... And then there was the haunting emptiness when a young Thakur returns to find his family dead... with a swing swaying, sounding like a young child's mournful wail...

Our task was to recreate it all... from the scratch!

Stay tuned for our blog posts as we share our trials, tribulations and triumphs with you. Stay tuned for... The Sound of Sholay...