Tushar Lall on winning the Dadasaheb Phalke for the Indian Jam Project and making a mark globally
I started learning the piano at age four, after being diagnosed with ADHD [Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder]. I needed something to keep me busy. Soon, my parents and I realised that I had a knack for it. While I was good at academics and sports, I kept coming back to the keys," says musician Tushar Lall of The Indian Jam Project. At 24, he is still at it, and recently received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, for, as he says "his contribution to Indian classical music". "I think they saw that there is something 'real' in my work," says the artiste. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is given annually at the National Films Awards, and honours people for their outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema and culture.
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His work, which is in form of The Indian Jam Project, involves giving Hollywood scores an Indian classical music twist. His interpretation of the Game of Thrones theme, made using tabla and a bansi, went viral for all the right reasons. This fusion aesthetic finds root in his childhood, where his mother would listen to Fareeda Khannum and father would play Abba and Beatles at full volume. "I would copy these tunes on my keyboard. Fusion comes to me naturally as I was always around these two different schools of thought," says the musician, who left for New York at 17 to study music production at Dubspot, the DJ school. "I still don't know theory, but I wanted to learn everything about production - every process that goes into making a track. I wanted to be able do it all myself."
But, a chance encounter a few years ago that made him make up his mind about the kind of music he wanted to make. "I went to a concert in which a friend's father, a sarod player, was performing. It was one of the best experiences of my life, so later I wanted to take a picture with him. When we went back to the green room, he was fighting with organisers to pay him, even if it was a token account, so he could run his house. But they gave him a bouquet and a shawl instead. Then it struck me, Indian classical instruments are hard to master, and yet, here is a man who is an expert, but has to cry for money, because no one knows how important it is."
This prompted Lall to try and make his generation listen to these instruments. "Where else will you hear the Harry Potter theme on the sarod, and James Bond on a sitar. It's a culture that's dying and I don't want people, and especially the youth to forget it." His future plans include starting the World Jam Project, which will aim to empower and glorify not only Indian instruments but also international ethnic instruments. "Think about Korea. K-pop must have killed it for the classical instruments, right? We need to get them back."
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