Tag: An Action Hero

Composer Parag Chhabra talks about his music and more

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Parag Chhabra

Even though he started off 
as a vocalist, it was during his 
college days in Pune that Indore-
born musician Parag Chhabra 
started looking for opportu-
nities beyond just vocal expertise. 
Trained in hindustani classical music, 
he soon joined AR Rahman’s KM Music 
Conservatory in Chennai, where he was 
eventually discovered by the legendary 
composer. His shift to Mumbai in 2018 
got him his first break as a composer in 
the film Waah Zindagi starring Naveen 
Kasturia, Sanjay Mishra and Vijay Raaz. 
Currently, he is actively working as an 
independent music director with films 
like Good Luck Jerry, Jai Mummy Di, 
An Action Hero and the National award-
winning film Turtle. We speak to him to 
learn more about his musical style ahead 
of the digital debut of An Action Hero.

How would you describe your music philosophy?

This journey requires me to seek out 
knowledge; hence I can’t remain fixated 
on ideas. I truly believe music should 
soothe and heal people, especially in 
today’s times. I would say healing people 
through music is one of my major call-
ings.

How would you describe your musical stint in An Action Hero?

This is my second film with Anand L 
Rai as my first film with him was Good 
Luck Jerry. For An Action Hero, the 
theme was the first thing we cracked 
and it did quite well after the track’s ini-
tial release. It was then that we thought 
of turning it into a full-fledged song. The song mainly focused on a rap battle so as to bring out the concept of conflict 

through it, with the theme music inter-
playing in between. There’s another 
song called Ghere that explores the hip 
hop space with lots of melody in it. It 
has been sung by Vivek Hariharan and 
that rap part was executed by D’Evil 
of Gully Gang Cypher fame. The film 
is extremely urban with strong doses 
of dark humour in it, so, we tried to 
keep the music as urban as we could, 
bringing in western elements, as well. 
We have used uncommon instruments 
like the dotara from Bengal and the 
pipa from China. There are a total of 
fourteen instrumental layerings used 
in the songs.

 

Ayushmann Khurrana says Jehda Nasha remake ‘will reach the masses’: ‘My watchman had not heard the song before’

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Ayushmann Khurrana’s An Action Hero released in theatres on Friday and has largely received positive reviews. However, the makers of the film have received flack for remaking the two songs – Jehda Nasha and Aap Jaisa Koi – in the film.

Amid backlash for Jehda Nasha, Ayushmann has said that he is happy that the original creators of the song, Faridkot, has collaborated with An Action Hero and said that “now this song will reach the masses”.

Ayushmann told Mashable India in an interview, “I was listening to this song on loop during the pandemic. Independent music rose during the pandemic, the pandemic gave independent music such a push. Because you could be home, compose music and put it out there, everyone was home and a lot of us were listening to a lot of music and consuming it. All the big stars of independent music today owe it to the pandemic.”

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Adding that Faridkot got mainstream success because of his film, Ayushmann said, “Talking about Faridkot band, it is a good thing that they’re the collaborators and this song is onboard for An Action Hero. Now this song will reach the masses. It already did and I know it because the watchman of my building was watching the video of the song, and he told me how good it is. When I asked him if he had heard it before, he said no. I am glad the song has reached an audience where it hadn’t reached before.”

Earlier, the film’s music composer Tanishk Bagchi had said that recreations help “original singers in getting noticed”. In a chat with Hindustan Times, the composer said that the audience does not “even know the name of Jehda Nasha’s original singers (Amar Jalal and IP Singh). You only know my name because I have recreated it. Log jaante hi nahi ki kisne gaaya hai wo gaana (People don’t know the names of the original singers).” He added, “This step of recreating the song and picturising it on Ayushmann Khurrana and Nora Fatehi will help the original singers in getting noticed. We are just becoming a window for these people to come out in the mainstream.”