Stewart Copeland: I wish West made films like Bollywood does

The seven-time Grammy-winning musician talks about his love for Hindi films and how returning to India after 42 years feels like.

The last time he visited India with his iconic rock band The Police was in 1981. As legendary drummer and composer Stewart Copeland sets foot in India 42 years later, he’s “enjoying everything about the country to the fullest”. Currently in Delhi for a show with his Divine Tides associate, musician Ricky Kej, Copeland says, “India has changed a lot. There were no skyscrapers here 40 years ago. I remember people across the world would say, ‘India is a sleeping giant’. But seeing how the major corporates of America have CEOs from India and how England has someone of Indian descent as its Prime Minister (Rishi Sunak), I’d say the giant is waking up.”

Stewart Copeland and Ricky Kej

Having indulged “in way too much Indian food and sightseeing”, the 71-year-old is looking forward to his upcoming album with Kej. The seven-time Grammy winner says, “When Ricky and I collaborated on Divine Tides, he sent me the composition first and I got on board for the album. It won two Grammys. Now, we’re collaborating again, only this time I’ve sent him an album that I’ve created and he’s adding vocals to it. It features multiple languages from different countries, including Urdu, Tamil, Hindi, Mandarin, Armenian and Zulu.”

Besides being a rock lover, who has been “enjoying writing opera and orchestral music” of late, Stewart is also a huge Bollywood fan. “I’ve seen a few Bollywood films and I love them. I wish the West made films like that where the plot is all about the songs. I love the dance and music. Audiences here have an appetite for such stuff. I wish audiences in the West had the same appetite for song and dance. I love how the plot goes from tragedy to comedy to action adventure to a soaring love theme to some intimate spiritual moment and back to comedy within a minute. It’s incredible,” says the musician.

Meanwhile, ask if The Police, comprising Copeland, vocalist and songwriter Sting and guitarist Andy Summers, is up to a tour or a new album , and Copeland shares, “No, we’re all too busy enjoying life. But we get along really well. We have a great friendship and now I feel the only thing that could spoil that friendship is if we get in a room and try and make music together again, because we’re not the same people that we were 40 years ago. We realise that although we have shared experiences, we’re not birds of a feather. We make music for different reasons and in different ways.”