Shekhar Ravjiani of the Vishal-Shekhar composer duo hailed Hyderabad as ‘The land of the Legends” and expressed his love for the Telugu language, while giving a sneak preview to his first ever Telugu single, Sithakoka Chiluka (Butterfly) along with playback singer Chinmayee in the city on Friday.
“I had first begun on this concept of singles last year and have already released two Marathi numbers, ‘Saazni’ and ‘Saavli’, both of which have received terrific response. People who don’t understand the language have also loved it. The language here is music,” said Shekhar, speaking about his tryst.
Calling it an “instinctive decision”, the music producer roped in lyrcist Rakendu Mouli to pen the words for his southern venture. “It is a love song which makes you feel like something little has suddenly come and touched your soul, just like a butterfly.”
During his last movie outing with Chennai Express, Shekar also happened upon the idea of collaborating with singer Chinmayee. For her part, Chinmayee was delighted to be working with the composer/producer.
“For somebody who does not understand the language, it was amazing to see him work on this. Sithakoka Chiluka was completely Shekhar’s idea and working on this was a great learning experience for me,” she said.
Shekar was also pat to respond, “I did not know anything about the language. I learnt Telugu from Chinmayee and she helped me a lot.”
So how different is the experience of working on a single as opposed to scoring for a whole movie? “In a single, you are your own director, there is no structure which you have to follow which allows you the liberty to go with the flow. Also there is no deadline when you’re working on a single, which gives me more time to think and create,” he explained.
But while a soundtrack of a film has the movie to ride on, singles, or even albums for that matter, do not really have a space in the music industry now, unlike the 90’s. Which is where the importance of social media steps in. “Non-film music does not usually get much recognition. It is heartening to see the response received on social media. It has been four hours since it was released and has already received 8000 hits,” he said, adding that the revenue generated from every legal download and Youtube hit would be donated to Manikethan, a charity organisation in Thane which supports abandoned girls.