From music captain to music composer

There was a time when Dhruv Dhalla wanted to stick to the family business of manufacturing radiators, and treat music like a hobby. Today, with four movies under his belt (including last week's Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande) the music composer can't wait to stay up till 4 am, when the city falls asleep, to hear the tunes in his head

Four gangsters plan a heist and have a good timeu00a0-- that was the brief music composer Dhruv Dhalla received for the film Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande, actor Parvin Dabas' directorial debut that released last week. From that, he composed two songsu00a0-- Mast Kalander, a Punjabi track that he wrote himself, and Barf Mein Tension, a hip-hop track with earthy lyrics.

Dhalla, who made his music debut in 2006 with Dibakar Banerjee's Khosla Ka Ghosla, says he never thought he would end up in Bollywood, although as a child growing up in New Delhi, he always had a funky background score playing in his head.

To decide the score, I look at the pace, genre and the cast of the film.
Also, what happens before and after the scene and how it should make
you feel.

"We are businessmen. My grandfather started a radiator manufacturing firm, and I thought I would take over some day," says the self-taught pianist.u00a0 As a kid, Dhalla would reconstruct music scores he had heard on his Casio keyboard. At 17, he was gifted a professional Cog keyboard that allowed him to make and mix music.

"We took part in an inter-school competition and there was a nine-year old girl who sang Don't Cry For Me Argentina while I accompanied her on the piano. It made history. That's a really grown-up song for school kids to attempt, and we got a standing ovation," recalls Dhalla.

Still certain that as the elder sibling and son of the family, his destiny lay in expanding the family-run firm, Dhalla enrolled himself in business school and was in Second Year when he received a call that would change his after-class schedule. Palash Sen, lead singer of Indian rock band Euphoria, who spotted Dhalla while judging a college competition, took him on board.

"I would work with my dad, jam with the band, make some pocket money, travel and meet some interesting musicians ufffd life was good," says Dhalla. He would also create jingles for friends who worked in the advertising industry. "The first jingle I worked on was for Phoenix sports shoes. It was little work and easy money," says Dhalla, who realised that a score in his head kept him company all day.

While his family was supportive, his friends picked on him for oodles of passion but no direction. 'Will you play at weddings? Or will you be a pianist in a hotel lobby?' they'd chide him, as he pondered the options. All he knew was that he wanted to study music, and he went off to study at the Musician's Institute in California, USA.

"I could see the Hollywood sign from my balcony. Our visiting faculty comprised Steven Adler, the drummer from Gun 'N' Roses, and professionals from Broadway. I had no intention of coming back," says Dhalla. Equipped to understand the business of music, Dhalla's life went the way of most great film plots, and he made his way into Bollywood quite by fluke.

"Dibakar (Banerjee) taught me the ropes of making music for films and urged me to move to Mumbai," says Dhalla.u00a0To decide the background score, Dhalla says, he looks at the pace, genre and cast of the film. What happens before and after the scene and how it should make you feel, is also important, explains Dhalla, who has worked on Oye Lucky Lucky Oye and Tere Bin Laden as well.u00a0

Mast Kalander, one of the songs from his latest project Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande, fuses Bhangra and something along the lines of metal band Dream Theatre, thanks to Dhalla's Western influence.u00a0u00a0"As long as the sentiment is Indian, the reference can be international. A year later, nobody remembers the dialogues but what you remember of the film are its songs," adds Dhalla.