Amit Trivedi: Udta Punjab’s story is told through music

Music composer Amit Trivedi says the dark and trippy music of upcoming film ‘Udta Punjab‘ is the character extension of its lead Shahid Kapoor, who plays a drug-addict rapper in the thriller.

Directed by Abhishek Chaubey, ‘Udta Punjab’ deals with the substance abuse in the northern part of the state and its effects on the youth.

“The whole idea of music for ‘Udta Punjab’ was given by Abhishek Chaubey. He was the captain of the ship. He wanted me to create a new world of music for the character Tommy Singh, who is a rapper and singer. We tried to tell the story of the film through its music. The whole album is Tommy Singh’s expression,” Trivedi told PTI in an interview.

Trivedi, 37, who first shot to fame with critically acclaimed ‘Dev D’, says in ‘Udta Punjab’ music plays the key role as it helps to move the story further.

“He is a drug addict. He is high on cocaine everytime. He is loud, edgy and trippy guy. The entire characterisation of Tommy Singh had to be done through music. That’s why the music is trippy, edgy, dark, young and cool.”

Similar to his previous albums, the film also has an influence of Punjabi folk in its songs including ‘Chitta Ve’, ‘Da Da Dasse’ and ‘Ikk Kudi’.

“Folk music is the essence of our country. This music is one of the assets for us. It’s our responsibility to revive them and present them in a new way. I have always been fascinated by the folk of our country.”

Tommy’s voices — Babu Haabi, Shahid Mallya and Bhanu Pratap — in the film have already struck the right chord with the listeners.

“Abhishek and I wanted Shahid (Kapoor) to do it but he was not up for singing. The idea was to find someone who can sing and rap. But we could not find anyone.”

“So, we zeroed in on Shahid Mallya, who is the singing voice of Shahid and Babu Haabi is the rap voice. There are other singers also like Diljit Dosanjh and Kanika Kapoor. Vishal (Dadlani) and I also sang a song together.”

Trivedi says composing music for the film was a big task.

“The challenge was to make the music of the movie commercially viable. We had to keep everything in mind before recording a song. It was quite difficult for me.”

His future projects are Habib Faisal’s next and Aamir Khan’s production tentatively titled ‘Secret Superstar’.

Inputs from PTI

Also Read: LET’S WAIT AND WATCH: ALIA BHATT ON CENSOR ISSUE OF ‘UDTA PUNJAB’