Marathi music composer duo Ajay and Atul Gogavale, who shot to fame with �Natrang' have hit big-time in Bollywood. After enthralling audiences with their compositions in Viruddh, Singham and My Friend Pinto, the National award-winning duo has revived their magic in Karan Johar's Agneepath.

The earthy album is already climbing the music charts with the rehash number Chikni Chameli becoming a rage on music channels and radio stations. In conversation with Radioandmusic.com's Swagata Panjari, Atul Gogavale speaks about his experience of collaborating with Dharma Productions and challenges faced while remaking their cult song Kombdi Palali. The composer also conversed about the growth of Marathi music industry.

Excerpts

How did you manage to acquire Agneepath?

Ritesh Deshmukh (actor) had attended one of our concerts and so suggested our name as the music directors to director Karan Malhotra and producer Karan Johar. He told them that if you are making Agneepath than you do listen to Ajay Atul. They heard our work in Marathi movies and decided that the genre of our music will fit the flavor of the cult film. .

Considering it was the remake of Marathi song Kombdi Palali, how challenging was it to compose Chikni Chameli?

The whole rehash of the popular song Kombdi Palali was a task. But the major challenge was the antara of the song, the Marathi version was a duet whereas Chikni Chameli was an individual track sung by Shreya Ghosal. Secondly, the lyrics of Kombdi Palali played an important role in popularizing the song, in its rehash we were looking for equally powerful lyrics which was delivered skillfully by Amitabh Bhattacharya.

What were the idea behind composing Chikni Chameli?

The demand for â€?Chikni Chameli' came from both director and producer. The song was appropriate as it depicted the 80's and 90's era.  Even while composing, Karan Malhotra was actively involved he stated that he is looking for a striking song which would carry the Indian cinema sound and yet remains contemporary. Agneepath is an action flick, so the music had to suit the earthy genre of the film.

What are the key elements that you focus on while composing songs?

Our approach is quiet simple we consider the story and character of the movie while composing, generally we choose to go along with the script. We don't have our compositions piled in a catalogue instead we would prefer a complete three hour briefing with director.

Ajay-Atul have created a well defined space in Marathi music. Tell us about your journey?

Our father was a government servant we didn't had any formal musical training neither our family was associated with the music. Although we were living in Pune, there was no scope to gain musical training as our father use to get transfer after every three years, and we had to shift to remote areas. We use to compose poems when we were in school, so one can say it was music that inspired us. Even in our struggling days we were quiet satisfied with our work.

Share your views on standard of marathi music industry today?

Compare to 20-25 years ago, where people weren't aware of Marathi music, but now they eagerly wait for the release. Chikni Chameli itself is the outcome of the popularity of its Marathi version, so for me Marathi industry is doing very well and I am happy with its progress.

It's said that Ajay-Atul has revived Marathi music industry which was going through the rough patch. Comment

We won our first National Award for Jogwa and it is memorable and very special because after 55 years Marathi music industry won a National award. It was a huge honour for us.

We just did what we loved doing we never bifurcated music on the grounds of language. Instead of categorizing, we did justice to the song and focused on creating original music. Folk Music is in our genes we played around with it during our debut album Vishwa Vinayak, which was a huge success.

What kind of music do you personally like?

We prefer more of symphony music like of Beethoven, Bark, John Williams, RD Burman, Madan Mohan, Shankar Jai Kishan, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and the list goes on…

Which are your future ventures? Are there any Bollywood projects you are working on?

The Ajay-Atul Live in concert is on calendar, the dates are not yet planned but it will include our entire catalogue comprising Marathi as well as Hindi songs from Agneepath, My friend Pinto and Singham.

Right now we are concentrating on Agneepath release on 26 January and once it's done we would be composing music for Rohit Shetty's Bol Bachan starring Ajay Devgan. We are also working on our album Vishaw Vinayak Part 2.