I needed to go beyond 'Dhoom': Pritam

The composer of the hugely successful "Dhoom Machale" is in a dilemma. "How am I going to create another song that successful?" asks Pritam Chakraborty, arguably the youngest music director in Bollywood today.

"I'm in a fix! You can't design a hit like 'Dhoom Machale'. When we were working on that song we hardly thought it would become such a craze?"

"Dhoom Machale" of "Dhoom" (2004) was sung in Hindi by Sunidhi Chauhan and in English by Tata Young. It won him the MTV Award for best composer. He also composed the music for "Dhoom 2".

The shy, exuberant Pritam's career is at the crossroads.

"Though I've done a lot of soft melodies, my career has become synonymous with 'Dhoom'. I needed to go beyond, and that's the chance I got in Meghna Gulzar's 'Just Married'. When Pritish Nandy Communications, with whom I've done 'Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena', was unsure of whether I could do a subject that didn't seem like my forte, I said let me try," Pritam told IANS.

"I worked with Gulzar saab so early in my career. It's a dream come true! I grew up listening to his songs with R.D. Burman. In college, I was a member of the R.D. Burman fan club and that's where I became a fan of Gulzar saab. I dreamt of working with him one day. I didn't know it would happen so early in my career."

Working with Meghna Gulzar was challenging and fun for Pritam.

"She wrote a really amusing script and the song situations are unlike anything we've seen or heard before."

Pritam burst into tears when he heard one of Gulzar saab's love lyrics. "I don't know what happened to me. A flood of memories came to when I heard Gulzar saab's words. I just couldn't stop myself."

Gulzar is all praise for Pritam too.

"It's virtually like a honeymoon for me. When Meghna told me I'd be writing lyrics for Pritam I didn't know who he was. I hadn't heard his 'Dhoom'. But I trust my daughter's judgement implicitly. So I happily met this young man. And he turned out to be a very interesting character."

Says Gulzar: "You can't see eye to eye with Pritam while working for the simple reason that he wears his hair all over his face, like a sehra. His eyes are just not visible from underneath all that hair. I'm surprised by Pritam's talent. Bosky asked me to write songs that are tongue-in-cheek."

The poet-lyricist says he has never had so much fun before. "I liked writing tongue-in-cheek lyrics like 'Kaisi kaisi ram milaye jodi'. That could be a song describing my collaboration with Pritam."