The chartbuster Chikni Chameli, from the upcoming film Agneepath, is their composition. They have also set to tune songs for the National-award-winning Marathi movie Jogwaa. They are the music directors for the Ajay Devgan-starrer Singham, but they are best known for orchestrating Vishwavinayaka, an album of devotional songs on Lord Ganesh. They are, if you have still not guessed their identity, Atul and Ajay Gogavale.
Chikni... may have become a phenomenon on the internet, but it would be grossly unfair to suggest that the song only piggy-backed on actress Katrina Kaif’s appearance in its video, which no doubt set many a heart racing. Probably an admission from the duo could set things in perspective. “The hit was perhaps waiting to happen. When we were in our 20s, instead of composing romantic tracks, we were immersed in creating devotional songs,” they aver.
On Agneepath, a movie that has already generated a lot of attention, they say: “We grew up with the characters of the original movie. This helped us compose music for its remake.” The duo admits that it was their compositions for Jogwaa and Natrang, a critically-acclaimed 2010 Marathi movie, and not that of Singham, that caught Karan Johar’s attention. Johar insisted that they recreate the grandeur of these compositions for Agneepath. In fact, a soundtrack in the movie employs 80 dhols.
Quiz them on their past and the two sober up a bit. “We grew up in rural India with no formal training in music. Our father used to play the bulbul and our mother was a homemaker,” they reflect. The likes of Shankar Jaikishen, S D Burman, Laxmikant Pyarelal and R D Burman are inspirations for these composers.
The duo pause for a moment when asked to recount the defining moment of their decade-long career, they say, “It has to be meeting the fabulous music composer Ilayaraja face-to-face. We once went to Chennai and when we met him, we nearly cried with happiness. He is our guru, a Dronacharya, and we are his Ekalavyas.”