Today, with the music of films ‘Jungle’ and ‘Mast’ wafting through the speakers nationwide, whiffs of freshness are blown into the world of film-music, which otherwise reeked of the same old stale sounds.
Both these scores are products of one man’s genius, yet they fall in completely different genres.
Meet Sandeep Chowta, the Chennai-based young and talented music director with a wide and eclectic range of music that is gradually becoming a rage with Gen. Y, and breaking new barriers in Mumbai’s filmdom.
Music has always been a part of Sandeep’s life. When he was studying in school, he got introduced to western music when he accidentally stumbled upon his father’s music collection. Later on, he developed a liking for jazz, which inspired him to form a band called ‘Pulse’ with Sivamani and Suresh Thomas. And when their album ‘Reaching Out’ won the Channel V Viewer’s Choice Award it was clear that people had begun to reckon Chowta’s talent as a composer.
Chowta was picked by Nagarjuna to give the music score for ‘Chandralekha’, which became a super hit. Later Ramgopal Varma chose him to give the background score for ‘Satya’ and there was no looking back for Sandeep.
Today, Sandeep is better known as a product of Ram Gopal Varma's camp. Not only has he done the background score for ‘Satya’, ‘Kaun’ and Shool’, he has also done the entire musical score for ‘Mast’ and Ram Gopal’s forthcoming film ‘Jungle’.
“The truth is”, says Sandeep, “I enjoy working with Ramu because he gives me the creative freedom I need to bring out the best in me. And when we work together there is constant brainstorming going on. Ramu understands my music and I understand his requirements.”
Well, even though he may be branded as a Ram Gopal Varma-product the fact is that there is more to Sandeep than meets the eye. Recently he composed a track for channel V in which he experimented with rave techno music by deftly blending exotic sounds with some Geogorian chants. So impressive was the final product that now Channel V wants to put an album of such music on the Internet.
Nowadays Sandeep is busy doing the background music for Dharmesh Darshan’s forthcoming film ‘Dhadkan’. And as far as future prospects are concerned, Sandeep has decided to take a real deep plunge into music – “ I have now decided to take a whole cluster of projects. You never know which one will turn out to be a hit. I want to go through the experience of composing for a typical masala film. Moreover, I would want to work with lyricists Gulzar and Javed Akhtar to see where they take my music.”
Hard to say where these respected lyricists will take Sandeep’s music. Right now all we know is that Sandeep’s music is taking the standards of film music to new heights and newer domains.
Today, with the music of films ‘Jungle’ and ‘Mast’ wafting through the speakers nationwide, whiffs of freshness are blown into the world of film-music, which otherwise reeked of the same old stale sounds.