MUMBAI: Composer Salim Merchant recently shared experiences of his music journey at the 5th Veda Session at Whistling Woods International, Mumbai.

Radioandmusic.com had a quick interaction with Merchant, in which he spoke about his forthcoming projects and unspooled memories of his Hollywood debut as a composer for 'Sold' which will release this month.

His first Hollywood venture as a music composer was for a movie named 'Sold' by Academy Award winner Jeffrey D Brown. "We started working on 'Sold' in 2013 and it was made in 2014. Finally it is releasing in India this May," said Merchant.

“Sold’s music is very different from the movie. The film is very dark; it is about human trafficking where little girls are smuggled and pushed into prostitution. The makers didn’t want the song to be reflective of the movie. We have done two songs for the film. 'Namaste' is a fun song which is very distinct from the subject of the movie and the other song is a celebratory situational shaadi song which unites the characters. We are also working on a film named 'Purna', directed by Rahul Bose. This is a film about this young girl from Telangana, who is the youngest girl ever to climb Mount Everest,” he said.

“I wanted to be a musician since childhood, and it was an ambition my parents shared. I thought I would pursue music as my passion; I didn’t know that it would end up as my profession. I studied the piano and keyboards and Sulaiman studied drums and percussion. We realised that we are a great team together as I was handling melody and music arrangements and Sulaiman was handling rhythm and sound engineering. We started making songs, jingles and so many things and over time, we realised that people like our stuff and they found something new. This is a beautiful feeling,’’ said Salim about their music journey.