He may not like rap, but his name lends itself to rap lyrics. In conversation with disco king biddu who's reinventing himself as a writer

LOVER of Buddhist motifs, longhaired and not-on-the-job (technically anyone who's not doing their two bit for Bollywood is considered unemployed in Mumbai)u00a0 Biddu worked his hippie hipness to advantage and went on to write his autobiography. He's written it in the wry, self-deprecatory tone that he speaks in, not allowing ego to creep into his life story and make him sound like the hero that he wasn't.

Everybody wants to write a book, make a film or open a restaurant, Biddu defends himself. The 65-year-old music producer who crafted the careers of artistes such as Tina Charles (Dance little lady), Nazia Hassan (Aap jaisa koi, Disco Deewane), Carl Douglas (Kung Fu fighting), Alisha Chinai (Made in India) and top playback singers such as Shaan, wears his fame lightly.

We meet him one afternoon soon after he's done the rounds of the highbrow Jaipur Literary Festival with his autobiography also titled Made in India. "They asked me to do a reading there, but I sang two songs instead," says Biddu, laughing at himself as he mock-reads a passage from the book. He's shown up in cut-offs and a faded Tee. We're surprised when he tells us that he's brought a change of clothes along for the shoot.

"I'm methodical," he says sheepishly, taking out a frayed pair of jeans, "to show skin" and a neon green Tee that he threatens to wear at his Bengaluru gig, when we tell him he'd be blinding Mumbai audiences.



He tells us that an autobiography was nowhere on the cards two and a half years ago when he went around to publishers to take a look at his debut novel. "All of them said, 'Yeah, yeah great we'll do this, but we'd like you to write your autobiography, which I was very reticent to do.

My wife Sue was also insistent that I write because she'd been hearing my stories at dinner parties." Biddu began work on his autobiography in March last year and finished it in September. That's quick, we tell him. "I didn't have to look for an idea. Writing is the same as music. I spent eight hours a day on writing just like I would on musicu00a0 it's the same discipline."

From the frontman of a band called The Trojans, which covered The Beatles and The Stones, Biddu rode the disco wave all through the 80s. We get into a discussion about formula and musical triggers. Biddu says, "I always compose for me. My taste in music is very pop. I don't go for art. I love commerciality and I won't hide that. I love things that I can snap my fingers to." He's also worked the rhythm ingeniously. "I used a rhythm box. If you listen to Disco deewane, Aap jaisa koi and Dance little lady you'll find a commonality in the rhythm.
I used a Latin American groove on all three. It's a very catchy, seductive rhythm and sensual because of the way the girls sang it."

When Biddu moved to England in 1967 he got hooked onto black music music that he had no access to in India, and as he puts it, "anyone who came from India was about five years behind the scene in England then."

Musically, he remembers it felt like he was competing with talent from across the world. "The Americans, the Germans, the Australians everyone came to England. I couldn't afford to sound dated. There was a lot of catching up to do," he says.

Biddu picked up the business of music quickly. "Everytime the BBC plays your song, you're getting 11 pounds. A CD is cheaper in India than abroad. Abroad it's five time more expensive. In India, you get a small fee and that's it. Made in India got Biddu about 80,000 pounds."

The clubs were not musical reference points really but to meet girls, he admits candidly. "I was only 22 then." Getting to England, recalls Biddu, was one of the greatest highs and is captured in a chapter in the book in his witty, anecdotal style. "We had no passports.

India was a very closed society. We were rockin' with Khrushchev instead of rockin with Kennedy. We were a socialist country. We had nothing foreign so I couldn't wait to get out of India to make it abroad," he says. The chapters in the book retell just how badly Biddu wanted to realise this dream, almost lost hope but managed to sail to the city of his dreams London with an adventurous detour.

Kung Fu Fighting

Biddu's bio comes at a time when most self-respecting Foo Fighter fans have written him off, yet like the shrewd musician he is, Biddu knows how to win back that respect. Kung Fu fighting one of Biddu's biggest hits till date that Jack Black and Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo Green did a version of for the recently released animation blockbuster Kung Fu Pandau00a0 has a fantastic backstory.
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It started out as a B-Side sung by Carl Douglas and was recorded in 15 minutes. "When Carl first sang it to me, I must admit that it didn't set me alight," says Biddu, "I went in and added some vocal partsu00a0 the 'Oh ho ho' bits and when I played the A side to the label, they weren't impressed at all. They asked me whether that's all I had and I played them the B-Side they were blown away." Kung Fu Fighting sold a total of nine million around the world and three million in America, and became one of the biggest disco classics of all time.

Biddu promptly opened up his own publishing house Subiddu Music, also calculating that publishers make a bigger profit margin and own the rights to the recordings. He signed on Douglas and hunted down Tina Charles, then just a club singer in the outskirts of London. It was hard work, he admits. "No one came running to me. I found Tina after asking around a tiny plump girl with an amazing voice," he recalls.