The Quint caught up with music composer Amaal Mallik to talk about his journey so far in Bollywood. Mallik debuted as a music composer with Jai Ho when Salman Khan pursued him to work on the film. Mallik says his career nosedived from there until Bhushan Kumar trusted in him and gave him ‘Sooraj Dooba Hai’ in Roy. Most recently, he composed the track ‘Yeh Aaina’ from Kabir Singh.
Where did it all start for you, because you come from a music background?
When I was about 7-8, one of my uncles came and gave me a small Casio and till then I used to play a lot with these He-Mans and a lot of these kid toys. But once that came, I forgot about everything. I would only be hitting keys and going crazy. So I think my mom saw that and she put me in a piano class where I started learning in Trinity College. Alongside, there used to be music sittings at home. My uncle, dad and my grandfather are all musicians themselves. So there was a Bollywood atmosphere at home. But I was learning Western classical music.
And at about 15-16, I made a piece of music with some random lyrics and I went up to my dad and asked him to listen to it. And then he looked up to me and asked, “You’ve made this?” I said, “Yeah.” He said it’s really nice and you have a composer in you. At that moment when my dad said that to me, I think started believing that I can compose. I was a kid growing up on the best of both worlds. My friends and I used to listen to a lot of English music and at home I had Hindi music happening all the time.
Kabir Singh, actually story-wise, is getting a lot of mixed reactions from the audiences because the character is a misogynist.
It’s got that aggression. You can’t cheat in a movie when it’s about someone’s life. It’s about the director’s life. So it’s his vision. Who am I to tell him that no how you are thinking about this character is wrong. They have said very clearly that this is not what you are supposed to do. It’s a lesson also when youngsters are going and seeing they are seeing someone destroying himself in love. Not listening to friends, family.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)