Ajay and Atul Gogavale, more renowned as Ajay Atul, have garnered acclaim as music composers in Marathi cinema. The National Award winning duo for 'Jogwa' (2008) are sanguine of notching another crescendo of success with their score in 'Singham'. Ajit Ramachanddran strikes the right notes with the duo…
 

 
At their office in suburban Mumbai, a round of piping hot tea is being dished out to an array of media masses. Turn by turn, reporters zoom into the adjoining room to quiz and query and maybe… send into a flurry…. Ajay and Atul Gogavale.

The duo of tunesmiths, more famed as Ajay Atul, have struck up a high note with Singham, the Ajay Devgn and Kajal Aggarwal starrer helmed by Rohit Shetty.

On the Marathi music front, the duo has earned ample acclaim, including pencilling in the National Award ('Best Music Direction') for Jogwa in 2008 and garnering accolades for Natarang (2010) which highlighted the traditional folk music forms of Maharashtra such as lavni, phatka and tamasha.

On the Hindi music trail, Ajay Atul had kickstarted their innings with Gayab (2004), followed by Viruddh and Life Ho To Aisi, both in 2005, and also ventured into composing music for a South flick 'Shock' in 2006.

Presenting a chunk of the conversation with the duo…

How did you manage to turn composers for the Hindi version of 'Singham'? Did you approach Rohit Shetty or vice versa?

Atul: We were busy with Marathi films and though our first Hindi movie was Gayab, we had been concentrating on Marathi cinema music. We never had this theory of approaching people as we believe that if your work is good, then good work comes to you automatically. We got a call from Rohit Shetty's office and when we went there, we did not have anything special to show him except for a few recent Marathi songs. He heard the songs for 10 to 15 minutes with us in his car and on getting down, asked if we were free in March- April, then he told us that we would be working on 'Singham' and started briefing us.
 
You managed to have convinced him rather swiftly….

Yes and it happened so quickly that we couldn't react! What worked for us is that the movie is based on a Marathi cop and 25 per cent of dialogues are in Marathi, so we knew how to bat on this field. We want to thank Rohit Shetty for showing confidence in us after just 15 minutes of listening to our songs.
 
Which was the first song that you composed for 'Singham'?

Ajay: The first song we composed was the 'Singham' title track. After the initial meeting, when we met him again, he briefed us about the song requirement and told us that he wanted a very powerful song which would also show the tender heart of Bajirao Singham. He wanted to connect Singham with Narsasimha bhagwan and we searched a lot for shlokas about Narasimha as we wanted to show the heroism of the character. The song was to be used in background too and we wanted it to make more rustic but melodious too with undertones of holiness of the character's heroism. The song was to have international feel too and we combined all elements. Rohit Shetty gave us a completely free hand.
 
Any particularly favourite tracks from the film?

Atul: The Singham title track is my favourite song as when one sees a hero in a film, we relate to him and this song would energise me and make me feel powerful.

Ajay: I can't choose any single song as every song is our baby…

The film does have a mild Marathi flavour despite being a Hindi film. How have you managed to incorporate that into the music via the singers and instruments?
 
Ajay: We were never told to bring in a specific Marathi flavour or that we could work on it better because we are Maharashtrians. If you hear the Singham title track, except for the dhol tasha at the end there is no such Marathi flavour. That too we put in deliberately after hearing the whole story because until then we did not know the percentage of Marathi dialogue in the movie. maula maula is rock sufi and saathiya is a rustic and romantic composition..
 
Were there any inputs from Rohit Shetty and Ajay Devgn towards the music of the film?

Atul: We got a completely free hand and there were lot of discussions with us. Rohit also gave inputs which we could use in the film and it came out as expected. The saathiya song had not reached on time in Goa and Rohit had shot a montage and what we heard matched it. From day one, we were on the same wavelength which usually works out well in the end. When we had maula maula as an option to saathiya and we made Ajay hear both, he told us that both should be separate songs to put in different situations. It was an enjoyable experience working with Ajay and Rohit for the freedom and confidence shown in us…
 
But you didn't compose the background music for 'Singham'…

Ajay: We were busy doing other films and the topic never came up. Singham was made in three months so the speed was tremendous. Rohit had shot an action sequence in Goa, where Ajay bashes goons with a pole and when he came back, we were discussing music when we show him the Shiv taandav composition that we had created and he was completely impressed by it and told us that he would edit the action sequences, so that it matches the taandav music which he did.
 
'Item numbers' are a rage nowadays. Were you never asked to compose one for this film?

Atul: The producers and directors were convinced about the content of the movie and what they wanted in it. There was never any demand or request for making an 'item song' for Singham. People still come to us with a menu of demands. Here we got musical freedom.

Ajay: When we had a scripting session, everyone agreed that this film has purity and we don't have to do anything loud to convey purity. We could have made a club song in this too but there was no need as the character and his approach is different.