You do write and compose your own non-film songs, but this is your debut as film composer. How did Pranali - The Tradition happen?
The beej (seed) was planted at a Mumbai concert Jalsa where my band Kailasa, which means my partners Paresh and Naresh Kamath and I, was performing. Harward Group had sponsored that show and that’s when I first met Nikhil Mathur and got to know him.
After the concert, Mathursaab broached the idea of a film that he wanted us to do. I told him that I would love to score for a film.

Did he specifically mention this film?
He called me again for a narration some days later, and when I heard the script I thought, “Wow! This is a cool subject!” This was a very Indian story with a great sensitivity. The music had to be entertaining but also meaningful and in-depth.
Devdasi ki jo pranali hai woh desh ki ek samasya hai. Any film made on a social issue can have a great positive effect on society, the way Mother India did.

Would you compare this film to Mother India?
Why not? Filmmaking is a creative process aur har ek ko positive rehna padta hai. Everyone has the same enthusiasm and passion while making a film. Everyone sets out to make his own Sholay, Mother India or Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

How does your approach change when composing for an album and composing for a film?
Dekhiye, this world, like Shakespeare said, is a stage and we are all actors performing with the Almighty as the director. When you look at certain situations from your eyes and perspectives and feel the vibes the compositions can come out, whether it’s for an album or a film. But I must add that it was interesting, fulfilling and exciting to work on a film.

There are just three basic melodies in the film. How did you conceive the film’s music?
I approached each song according to the situations and characters. For example Sach na batana is a satirical and humorous song at the same time. It is lip-synched by the character of Sultan, played by Upendra Limaye, who plays the guy who delivers the girls to the customers. The ministers, for whom the devdasis are only vote-banks, come there to get rakhis tied on their wrists. Sultan is a sympathetic character, he has lived among the girls. It is he who sings about how truth is unpalatable and hypocrisy prevails, as shown in the line Sach na batana padega pachhtana.
The other two melodies are also situational. There is a chulbula song that four of the girls are singing, and a background song when the child is deflowered.

You have taken the four busiest singers of playbackdom - Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Mahalakshmi Iyer and Richa Sharma -in a package in Sakhiyaan while it is Madhushree who gets the solo Main hoon Devi. By convention, upcoming singers get a group song and the top names get the solos.
(Laughs uproariously) This is something I never thought of! Well, it’s like this: all these singers are friends and colleagues, so I never thought about this angle! And though Sakhiyaan is a four-singer song, the nuances of the composition needed taiyyar voices. Main hoon Devi is a pathos-filled background number.

There are two more tracks - Udit’s version of your song Sach na batana and your version of Main hoon Devi, which sounds odd because of the incongruity in the gender. Will these extra tracks be used in the film in a specific way?
Well, I had recorded both the songs for giving the cue for recording. But the producers became sentimental about them and kept them on the album though Udit Narayan has sung Sach na batana so well.

Sach na batana seems to have a whiff of Shankar-Jaikishan and Main hoon Devi a flavour of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Is that in any way intentional or some form of a tribute?
Kya baat kar rahe hai! If you say that, it’s like a blessing, kyoon ki yeh log to sab pitamah hain! But to be honest, I have not really grown up on film music, and in that sense I have hardly been exposed to it.

How did you rope in Anil Pandey, who has been heard very sparingly - this is his first full film.
Anil is an old friend from the time he worked as a journalist in Indian Express, Delhi. He later worked on some news channels and has written Shubha Mudgalji’s Pyar Ke Geet, two songs in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…, and also some songs in Gangaajal and Big Brother.

You write your own songs. Why was Anil Pandey or any lyricist needed?
Apni hi mithai zyaada na khaao to accha hai, hai na? (Laughs)

Will you be open to composing for more films?
Why not, ji? I even became a playback singer by chance. I came here to record for an album that never happened then! From there I got the opportunity to sing jingles for television commercials and Salim-Sulaiman gave me my first break in Baaz with the song Are jalaa koi with Sunidhi Chauhan. I sang the song under their supervision even though Ismail Darbar, the song’s composer, was present.
After that, it was Salim-Sulaiman again who called me for Rabba ishq na howe with Sonu Niigaam and Sapna Mukherjee in Andaaz. This time Shravan was not even present and I had no interaction with Nadeem either. And then Vishal-Shekhar called me for Allah ke bande from Waisa Bhi Hota Hai - Part II. As luck would have it, the film released before the other two and the song became a major hit.

You have been into music always. So why were you not exactly keen on playback?
I was not even keen on music as a career! In Delhi, music is generally approved as a hobby, not as a profession or to make a living! I have done very oddball things - I did export business that failed in Delhi, then off I went for some years to Singapore and Thailand. Nothing worked out!
Then one day I sang Nusrat Fateh Ali Khansaab’s Piya re piya re at a private function in Delhi and my younger sister who was in the audience noticed how I seemed to have affected the people present. She told me that I sing deep from my heart and must take music seriously.

What is the role of Paresh and Naresh if you compose the melody and also write lyrics and sing on albums?
They are the people who decide the treatment, sound and final presentation of my melody. Every composition will always be billed as Kailash-Paresh-Naresh. Like Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, we are inseparable.

What are the films you are doing now?
I will be featuring in a song that I have written and sung and we have composed for a film called Allah Ke Bande. We are also doing two songs in Chandni Chowk To China and Nikhil Advani wanted me to write the songs too. I have recently sung for Rajesh Roshan in Krazzy 4 and for Adnan Sami in 1920, which is a song that will again be filmed on me. I am also singing for Bapi-Tutul in Sarkar Raaj, for Sandesh Shandilya in Ketan Mehta’s Rang Rasiya and for Shantanu Moitra in Mahaadev Ka Sajjanpur.

And have you expanded your horizons beyond the Hindi language?
Yes, I sang for Satish Chandra More in the Marathi film Mee Naahi Ho Tyaatla, and for all the South Indian languages for A.R.Rahman, M.M.Kreem, Vidyasagar, Harrys Jairaj, D.Imaan and G.V.Prakash. I must say that they are so particular about diction and accent, especially in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, that poora tel nikaalte hain!