JAWAHAR WATTAL

‘Pop music has become like instant coffee’
He’s been around for, well, forever! Producing Indi-pop albums for the likes of Baba Sehgal, Daler Mehndi and Shubha Mudgal. Setting them on the road to stardom and then withdrawing into the background to forge new avenues of expression. He’s quite a ‘chuppa rustom’ in more ways than one...

You stepped into the limelight with Shubha Mudgal’s album.
No. As a matter of fact, I produced Baba Sahgal’s first album, Dilruba much before that. Baba came to me for a break to sing for my commercials. We decided we should do an album together. I spoke to Magnasound, and that was it. If you think I’m a behind-the-scenes man, it’s by virtue of the job I perform. I’ve been planning my own album. But one just kept working, working and working. Daler Mehdi came on the scene in 1994. I did Bolo Tara Ra Ra, then Shubha Mudgal’s Ali Morey Angana, then Shweta Shetty’s Deewane To Deewane Hai

All these artists shot to fame through the sound you devised for them.
Yes, I was the producer-composer. I have put everything together in the albums that I did with these artists. I went as far as identifying an upcoming artist, presenting him or her to a music company and then doing a demo for them, subsequently producing their albums.

But a producer doesn’t get any laurels in this country.
Perhaps you’re right. But one didn’t get any time to think about one’s own prospects. As far as singing goes, I’ve done my share of it when I did jingles. I’ve sung for 2,500 commercials. When I was in school I sang for jingles and participated in sessions with various musicians. Then I started my own production house in 1984. At that point of time, lots of ad films were being made in Mumbai, and a lot of work started flowing back to me in Delhi. So suddenly I gained credibility as a musician and producer.

How did you discover a knack for creating so many styles and genres of music?
Music is God’s gift. But there’s no music in our family. My dad is a doctor. I developed my passion on my own. In 1984, I got a big break with Indian Airlines to compose inflight music. At that point of time, I introduced fusion music into inflight music.

Why has recognition been so hard to come to you?
Pop is in any case still in its infancy. There’s still no clear definition of pop in this country. Anything non-filmi is pop. Now film music has started to sound like pop. Our mainstay with the masses is still film songs. Pop is still confined to urban and semi-urban areas. In rural areas the glamour of cinema is still supreme.

What about the filmi element in pop music?
I feel it’s very important to have people in the business who understand artists. Otherwise everyone presumes nothing new will succeed in the Indi-pop business.

Whom would you name as meritorious pop practitioners today? Your Baba Sehgal has really deteriorated?
My job is to show the way. What an artist does subsequently is entirely up to him. In any case, an artist must diversify and move forward. Present day pop is a complete audio-visual medium. Only the talented can make it. You can’t have fly-by-night pop singers. Nowadays we have pop singers from all walks of life. Everyone wants to be a Daler Mehdi, Shubha Mudgal or a Shweta Shetty.

What do you feel about the absurd upsurge of Bhangra music?
Punjabi Bhangra is an enthusiastic style of music. But the style needs to change. That’s where music producers like me come in. If we keep repeating the same sound albums are obviously not going to do well. Nothing new is being tried out in Bhangra-pop. But my new artist Rishi Prasad, whose album has just been released is promising. We’ve moved away from Bhangra sounds in this album.

How do you judge a new talent?
By his singing abilities, charisma on stage, and his interaction with crowds. When Daler and Baba Sahgal came to me they were untried. They came looking for a break. I’ve just completed an album with Usha Uthup. It was a long-standing wish of mine come true. I don’t think you’ve heard her sing the way she does in my album. When I met her I told her it was my cherished dream to work with her.

Why not a pop album with Lataji or Ashaji?
There’s a whole process that has to be gone through. Their schedules, then the music companies. It isn’t as though I haven’t had a free hand. I have always gone against mainstream. I’m doing an album with Usha Uthup which is going to surprise you. In Ushaji’s album there’s a qawwali, a reggae track and of course mainstream pop. The dhol beat and the Punjabi brew aren’t what pop is all about. Primarily the music should touch them. Today . I am also doing an album with Hema Sardesai which is going to surprise you. And I am doing two re-mix albums.

Do you see re-mix albums as a challenge?
Well my re-mix album of Christmas carols Joy To The World for Tips did fantastically well. To me a re-mix album is a process of recreation. A lot of people criticise re-mix albums. But my view is one has to change with the times. We grew up in khakis and churidaars. Now’s the time for denim. When I do a re-mix I never mess around with the basic melody. I change the arrangement to suit today’s trends, so that today’s MTV generation would be familiarised with something like Hawaa mein udta jaye. If we play the original, youngsters would say, ‘What’s this? Shut it please’. In the West we have old Elvis songs sung by UB40, so why not a re-mix of old melodies in this country?

What’s more challenging, film or pop music?
I’d go along with pop. Because here we have a canvas with nothing on it. But in films you’re given colour schemes from beforehand. I haven’t done film music so far. There’s been no time. Every pop album takes two to three months. Those who do it in fifteen days are welcome to it. I like to spend time thinking, working out chorus sections and arranging the rhythm patterns. I have always been complimented for the texture of voice I get out of my artists. I’ll claim responsibility for what they do with me (laughs). Afterwards the singers keep jumping from one music company to another. I have no favourites.

How do you see the future of non-film music?
It’s still an open market. Pop music needs to grow up and mature. It needs to come up to the standards in the West where pop music is an independent genre. Lots of planning goes into artistic promotion, road-show, copyright management, a whole lot of things.

Isn’t being Delhi-based a disadvantage as far as showbiz is concerned?
(Laughs). Well I am 54 albums old. I’ve been lucky to have at least one multi-platinum album each year since 1995. Last year I had three platinum hits, Jhanjar, Punjabi Munda and Piya Se Milke Aaye Nain. Now I want to take Indi-pop abroad. Talks are on. If Un dos tres can be a hit in India ,why can’t Ek do teen click in the US? I used to listen to Julio Iglesias when I was a kid. Now everyone swoons when they hear his son. The popular music market still needs to grow. In a population of 100 crores a film album sells about 50 lakhs to one crore units. A hit pop album sells from ten lakh to fifty lakh units. We haven’t even touched the tip of the iceberg. We’ve a long way to go. You asked me why I didn’t move to Mumbai? To create good music you have to be in your natural surroundings. In Delhi I feel far more relaxed, free from tensions of showbiz in Mumbai.

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