Fringes to mainstream

Kabeer Kathpalia. Pic/Ishaan Nair (right) Kamakshi Khanna

Cutting a bit-sized teaser to serve as an announcement for his next, Jee Le Zaraa, Farhan Akhtar picked the lilting music of When Chai Met Toast's Firefly. That the Akhtars would inarguable pick Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy - who have been imbuing magic into their narratives with befitting soundtracks for years - for this film too, was a given. Yet, there was something about picking a fresh sound from young indie artistes that enabled them to tug at viewers' heartstrings with the preview.

"A trailer is really a [standalone] piece, and choosing an existing sound that fits the theme helps them create the needed impact. Also, the vibe of the song and that of the score can be entirely different," says Kabeer Kathpalia, whose 2021 track, Duur, a collaboration with Kamakshi Khanna, was picked for the trailer of Madhuri Dixit Nene's The Fame Game.

Kathpalia, who is still basking in the glory of his work in Gehraiyaan, says developments such as these put money in the hands of indie musicians. "Now, this song works in this show. Tomorrow, there could be another film that has another vibe that also matches that of this song. Like we do in [Hollywood], we will be able to see the same song in 10 different shows, but fitting each one, distinctly. A musician gets paid for his/her work, and the makers get a track that fits their project."

Khanna, who is taking her initial steps into mainstream music with this project, says she has understood the importance of collaborating with a team to do justice to a track. "Anurag Shankar, who is the music supervisor, reached out to us saying that this song fits a web show. We didn't know who it was for. We were just happy that it was being used. As independent musicians, seeing our music being promoted at the scale that it is, is motivating. Hopefully, in the future, we won't consider indie artistes different from mainstream artistes."