Playing safe stops us from having great singers on our songs: Amaal Mallik

By Natalia Ningthoujam

New Delhi, Jan 23 (IANS) Young composer Amaal Mallik has worked with singers such as Arijit Singh, Armaan Malik and Sona Mohapatra. He loves to collaborate with a lot of artistes, but he says "playing safe" while working on Bollywood films, stops composers to team up with "great singers" like Hariharan and Kavita Krishnamurti.

There was a time when a lot of Bollywood films' soundtracks featured vocals of singers like Hariharan, Kavita Krishnamurti, Anuradha Paudwal and Udit Narayan.

Asked why he hasn't worked with singers like them till now, Amaal, who made his debut as a composer in his early 20s with the 2014 film "Jai Ho", told IANS in a telephonic interview: "I would love to collaborate with Hariharan Sir. That would be like a dream project, but with films nowadays...people who take decisions are too many.

"There was a time when the director, lyricist and composer used to create something and the producer used to listen to it."

Now, there are many factors.

"There are music supervisors, labels, how relevant the songs are, how commercial the songs are. Sometimes, they want us to play safe and I don't think I would want such legendary singers to sing safe songs.

"I think I have the capability to make music different from what I have already released. There are ghazals and other songs that I can create. There is no stopping me though."

If not for films, he would want to release those songs as non-film ones.

"Since Bollywood is getting more corporate, it is getting difficult for the composer alone to take a decision unless you are a big name like Pritam or Vishal-Shekhar who can speak his heart out and say that 'This is the singer I want for this song'.

"When the composition is so simple, why would you want to give a song like that to someone who is as gifted as Hariharan? Sometimes those names don't pop up.... Playing safe stops us from having such great people on our songs."

Amaal, known for composing chartbusters like "Sooraj dooba hain", "Main hoon hero tera" and "Naina", said that as a composer, he wants to make songs that will "remain forever". And if not the Bollywood route, he would like to release them as singles.

"If I get these voices for my songs, I would feel honoured," said the composer, who has worked with classical singer Shubha Mudgal.

He is also looking forward to serving as a judge on the upcoming season of "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li'l Champs".

Since he will be judging children, he said he will be critical, but not rude.

"I want them to feel like I am their elder brother. They should feel that I am approachable," said the brother of Armaan, who once participated in the singing-based show.

(Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at natalia.n@ians.in)