“I love Dalma more than anything else. I love Odia food, its culture and I want to compose for an Odia film,” said Bollywood music composer Anu Malik at the 13th edition of OTV’s annual convention ‘Foresight 2023’ in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.
Answering a question about Odisha and its food, Malik said, “Though I loved prawns of Odisha, now that I have become a vegetarian, Dalma has become the favorite food for me.”
“I have been to Odisha before. In fact, my renaissance began after I came to Odisha and visited Puri,” he said.
Malik delved down the memory lane and shared his childhood days. “There was a poetry which I found very difficult to understand. I was only seven when I read that poetry. To make it easy, I hummed a tune over that poem. When I came back home, my father heard me singing the tune. He gave me a piece of paper and told me to write the tune. I wrote down the tune in front of him. Then he hugged me and said that you are my Mozart. My journey as a composer started from there.”
Speaking about his ‘type’ compositions, Malik said, “Every composer has their own way of expressing music. JP Dutta came to me and said write a song for soldiers in the movie Border. I composed ‘Sandeshe ate hain…’ with the lyrics of Javed Akhtar, which is played at every Independence Day and Republic day. I am very proud of it. I like to compose patriotic songs.”
Sharing an emotional story, Malik said, “One day a soldier’s mother came to me at the airport with her son and made him sing Sandeshe aate hain.. in front of me. Nothing can be more emotional than this. I feel very privileged and honoured to have made this song for my country.”
“I believe in paying back to my country. India has given me a lot of recognition and I am paying back with whatever skills I have by composing patriotic songs whenever I get any chance,” he said.
Speaking about variations in music, Malik said, “It depends what the director wants. A tune is born by playing the situation in my mind. So the situation plays an important role in making different kinds of music for different kinds of movies, including a Judwa and a Refugee.”
Asked about the debate on copyright of songs, Malik said, “The youngsters deserve to hear the songs of yesteryears. However, when a composer takes an old song and remakes it, then he/she should give credit to the original composer because it takes a huge amount of effort to make a song. While I am not against the recreation of songs, I think all the stake holders should get equal credit in a song, including the original composers and lyricist.”
Speaking about Odisha and Odia music, Malik said, “I would love to work in any Odia project and compose songs for Odia films. I love Odisha culture because it has tremendous family value and love for their friends.”