PANKAJ UDHAS -- Tuning into the big bucks now

His voice lulls you to sleep, puts your mind in the relax mode and more than anything else, creates an air of serenity and calm. It conjures up visions of a gurgling brook, of the soft and gentle breeze, and of the soft chiming of bells. Meet the ghazal supremo, Pankaj Udhas, the man with a velvety voice.

He has been around for over three decades, and has over 37 albums to his credit. His recently released albums Jaaneman, Humsafar and Lamha feature on almost all countdown shows. For the singer, things could not have been better. He has now also turned entrepreneur by having joined the Dot Com Express. He has launched two websites, horrorunlimited.com, the world’s first interactive horror website, and musik121.com, a complete music site. Riding high on a wave of success the soft-spoken Pankaj spoke on his new role as an entrepreneur.

"Music being a passion, it is natural that I now diversify into the business aspect of the entertainment industry. Musik121 is one of the most comprehensive sites on Indian and international music. It covers a wide range of genres like Hindi, film, Indi-Pop, ghazals, classical, rock, pop and trance to name a few. The site explores all forms of music in great depth, and carries up-to-date information about music and the people behind it. It will also provide opportunities to upcoming singers through its online music label. I also plan to hold a number of ground events to support the site, and make it the best and most popular site on music," he explains.

Pankaj has lent his voice for the just released Ghaath. "Tujhe dekh ke dhadakta hai dil is a beautiful number which I enjoyed singing. I have sung many film songs, which have been very well received, and I hope my fans enjoy this one too," Pankaj says.

The singer is quite excited about the new venture he has launched for which he has many plans. "Musik121 is an ideal platform for audio companies to showcase their forthcoming releases because there are many contests on-line, and it is interactive as well. Another thing that will be of great help to the industry is the complete in-house web development which we offer. It is the right set-up to create websites of films, designing of CDs and cassette inlays and sound-streaming," reveals Pankaj.

Brushing aside claims that ghazals are now on the decline, he firmly states that ghazals can never die. In fact he is convinced that for the die-hard Indian romantic, ghazals are a way of life. He goes on to add that this year it were ghazal albums that sold the maximum.

Explaining how he manages to retain that special flavour in his songs, the singer says, "In all my albums I have always tried to present ghazals in a manner more appealing to the masses, yet maintaining the essence of ghazals. Singing ghazals by itself is a very limited area with little scope for innovation. But as far as possible, I have tried to use this limited space."

As of his musical future he says, "I am working on a few projects. An album with HMV has been released, and I also plan to sing old classics. I will start with some of the old poets, and I have thought of making an album like this a permanent feature in the coming years. Apart from that, I am looking at a very different kind of fusion album, which is purely my innovation. But I’d rather not talk about it now. Let music lovers wait for it."

So, for now, the ghazal maestro is set to taste success once again, this time as a businessman, but still peddling music.

Jahnavi Pal

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