The Hindu : New Delhi News : Man with the Midas touch

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Monday, Oct 30, 2006
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Man with the Midas touch

A composer who gave Indian music stars like Baba Saigal, Daler Mehndi, Shweta Shetty and Hans Raj Hans, Jawahar Wattal believes in constant experimentation and reinvention, says Madhur Tankha.

A firm believer that music as a language has no barriers, Jawahar Wattal, a leading music composer, director and producer, is constantly experimenting and reinventing the idiom.

Budding singers under Wattal's tutelage have not only honed their singing skills but also become famous. Indeed, some have even become legends in their own rights. No wonder Jawahar Wattal is one of the most sought after men in the music world.

Music has always been a passion with Wattal. "My parents told me that when I was just three years old I followed a street band on the road. After searching for me, my parents found me at a party where I was listening with rapt attention to what bandwalas were belting out," said Wattal, at a function in the Capital recently.

Trained in classical and Western music as a teenager, Wattal by the age of 21 had already composed and sung for a number of advertisement jingles and performed for leading professional recording outfits.

Revealing that he launched singer Baba Saigal in 1989, Wattal says: "I also gave singers like Daler Mehndi, Shweta Shetty and Hans Raj Hans their first commercial hits. Daler was a professional singer but I gave him his first hit with `Bolo Tara Ra Ra'. In all, I have launched 73 albums. Now, I am proud that another Delhi boy Arjun has been launched by me. It took me two years to come out with the latest album due to professional commitments."

The 1990s ushered in the Indi-pop revolution and Wattal ventured into the genre that has won him maximum acclaim. Besides producing over 3,000 jingles including Ponds, Pepsi, Hero Honda, Lufthansa, Maggi and Nescafe, he made music scores for television programmes like "The World This Week", "Tol Mol Ke Bol" and "Newsline". Till date, Wattal has composed, directed and produced albums ranging from Punjabi bhangra to Rajasthani folk, Christmas carols to sufiana and ghazals and even a pop album in Tamil.

Stating that hunger and commitment were necessary to make a mark in the music world, Wattal says: "These two things are absolutely necessary. Other things like sur and embellishments go side by side with `lagan'. Every singer has his or her voice and the song is composed according to the singer's voice. Ghazal singer Jagjit Singh's voice is known to everybody. So the song has to be composed according to his voice."

Asked why he had not ventured into Bollywood, Wattal says: "Why is everybody going gung-ho about Bollywood? I don't need to work in Hindi films as I have already created famous singers like Daler Mehndi and Baba Saigal. Even now, when bandwalas play music in marriage parties, the last song is always `Bolo Tara Ra Ra'. This song has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Tell me the name of any film song that has sold such a mind-boggling number? I know Kajra Re is also quite popular but it is from a folk tune of Uttar Pradesh."

Revealing that Loy, who teams up with Shankar and Ehsaan, was working with him from 1985 to 1988, Wattal says: "I have the ability to pick raw voice and then modulate it. I also decide on the styling part in terms of clothes and accessories and look. But most importantly it is the song that sells. First I sing and then the singer. You can say that I am the dummy voice and spirit."

Revealing that the latest singer on the block, Arjun, came to him four years ago and confided in him that he wanted to be a singer, Wattal says: "He will soon be touring every nook and corner of the country. This is just the beginning and he will soon come with his second album."

Wattal says that in the age of remixes nowadays a singer has a small shelf-life. But then there are exceptions. "Shubha Mudgal's song `Ali More Angana' is still heard on FM. This means the song has lived 11 years and that is not a short time."

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