Ravi Basrur: Salman Khan has finger on the pulse of listeners

A decade after he made his debut in the South Indian film industry composer Ravi Basrur found himself tackling a Bollywood score With none other than Salman Khan having his back the Antim mdash The Final Truth composer and lyricist knew hersquod have the freedom to give wings to his ideas In this interview he discusses the intricacies of his craftEdited excerpts from the interviewAntim is your first film in Bollywood How did your association with this movie come aboutTamil film industry stunt masters AnbuArivu suggested my name to Salman sir Khan Interacting with him was an eyeopener The technical understanding that he has about music is incredibleHe has a finger on the pulse of listeners He knows that if a song is created in a certain way it will appeal to viewers For instance there is a duet track in this film and the tempo was set at 100 It sounded nice but we knew that something was amiss Salman sir heard it at 2 am and suggested that the tempo be reduced We brought it down to 85 and it immediately sounded betterAntim composer Ravi BasrurAlso Read Aayush Sharma Felt I wonrsquot be able to hold my own in front of Salman KhanWhat advantages do you have when you helm the score soundtrack and lyricsI was initially called on to only do the background score During the designing process I had many ideas Designing a film is like setting up a home mdash you analyse where you want the kitchen and the temple As score composer you want to ensure that if a scene needs to look elaborate the music facilitates that For instance if therersquos a scene of the herorsquos entry you canrsquot musically play up the preceding sections When you are the designer programmer and songmaker executing such processes becomes easierHow are the musicmaking processes in Bollywood different from those of other film industriesI appreciate those who value our work With this film we were encouraged to work on our strengths I was the one who thought that a song was needed at a section When I worked on it and showcased it to Khan he agreed and said that we should have a few more songs He has been that mediator through which my craft could be showcased to Bollywoodrsquos audiencesWill we see more of your work in this industryI hope so My aim is to work as a musician not a music director When an album releases the musicians celebrate for that day only But what we enjoy are the moments between these days mdash the process of actually creating an album Thatrsquos what I will focus onAlso Read lsquoYou need to catch every beat while performing Lavanirsquo Waluscha De Sousa