Hey guys! So recently I had the chance to attend the MixRadio Music Connects 2014 where Imtiaz Ali came as a guest speaker for one of the panel discussions. He spoke at length about music, movies and his love for songs & lyrics.
Imtiaz Ali made his directorial debut with Socha Naa Tha but rose to fame with Jab We Met. His movies Love Aaj Kal, Rockstar and Cocktail gave him a lot of commercial acclaim while his recent flick, Highway, was loved by the critics. Currently, he is working on Tamasha that stars Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone. Here are 5 Juicy Revelations made by him at the event.
1) “I thought about Rockstar for about 7-8 years before finally making it”
He revealed that Rockstar was in his mind for 7 to 8 years before it actually got down to execution. Imtiaz believes anything true and pure will definitely be largely successful. He agrees that Rockstar was a defective film and the songs were strange, with unconventional lyrics. But the movie itself catered to a strange perspective and connected with the audience. Imtiaz said he loves what he does and does not mind being called a musical producer.
2) “Tamasha will have 8 songs”
Imtiaz told us that his upcoming film Tamasha will have 8 songs and he plans to release them very early. He explained that the life of songs is much longer than movies. We end up only remembering a film through its songs. He said, “When we listen to old songs from the 1950s and 1960s, we may not remember the name of movie or the actors but we always remember songs”.
3) “Music recording in started in 1902 and the music library today in India consists of 1.2 million songs”
Imtiaz told us that Indian story-telling was always done through music. Music is cultural with the Indian audience He went onto say that Indian songs make the largest library of music in the world. We have about 1.2 million songs and the recording started from 1902. Imtiaz feels that the best part of directing a movie is when he gets involved in the process music making.
4) “I will refer new musical talents to the music director”
Imtiaz Ali revealed that a film producer has a lot of say when getting a music director onboard for a project. On personal level, he will not prefer working with 4 different music directors for a film. He will rather stick to only one music director and work with only him/her for all the songs in the film. He then went onto say how he has the highest regards for live musicians and young talents. If he ever comes across promising new talents and young musicians, he will refer those talents to the music director.
5) “Jab We Met” was originally entitled “Train”
He revealed that Jab We Met was originally called “Train” considering how two strangers met on a train which led to a series of unexpected events. Imtiaz Ali said it was lovely working with music director, Pritam for music of the film. Pritam is good friend of Imtiaz and both of them had worked together earlier in the careers before venturing into movies. He ended the discussion on a very interesting note when he said that he loves to imagine things, beyond the real vision. If he sees a person on the street, he imagines his background, where he is from, where is headed etc.. that’s how stories come to his mind.
