Shankar Mahadevan: aiming for the stars

Music composer and singer Shankar Mahadevan, who's riding high on the success of Taare Zameen Par, pours his heart to Rachana Dubey

Music composer and singer Shankar Mahadevan pours his heart to

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Rachana Dubey

Can you rewind on

Taare Zameen Par

?

In fact, last year was eventful with

Salaam-e-Ishq, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Heyy Babyy, Johnny Gaddar

and of course

TZP

. Some of the films didn’t do well but songs like

Dil da mamla

and

Move your body

are still playing at parties and clubs.

So you’ve been raking in the moolah?

(Laughs) That’s what we’re all here for.

Despite winning awards, you’re still far from the top spot.

How does it matter yaar? No 1, 2 or 11, they’re all numbers at the end of the day. Ehsaan, Loy and I are happy being No 10. There’s room for all of us because compared to the number of films being made, there are few composers around. Our concern as a team is quality and originality.

Is Raman Mahadevan a relative?

(Laughs) Oh, no, we just have a common surname. He’s a good singer and a dear friend of mine. He’s been working with me for a while now. He joins us for most of our shows. I believe you’ve been working on a private album for a year now. We’ve been thinking about it. But movies take up a lot of our time. Whatever little time we can spare goes into working on the songs for the album.

It’s been almost five-eight years since we did our last album.

There was a report recently that most music composers have hiked their fee to Rs 1 crore and over. Yeah, money is pouring in now. Things have changed in the last decade.

But still, Indian composers make peanuts compared to what they make in the West.

We deserve much more than what we earn.

What’s the hurdle?

It’s the outdated copyright laws. We still don’t have a royalty system in place. Artistes abroad make enough money from a couple of songs to last them a lifetime. Indian cinema has gone global. It’s time the authorities woke up and streamlined the system.

Isn’t it awkward for you to judge other established singers on

Dhoom Macha De

?

Dhoom

... is not a serious singing competition. It’s more fun and games. Singers don’t have to prove that they can sing, they only have to outdo each other. Richa Sharma cannot be compared with Anaida or Sunita Rao.