MUMBAI: When a young boy from Bihar landed in Lucknow to pursue his passion for music and then moved to maximum city Mumbai in 2008, he had no idea he would one day make it big in Bollywood.

Shashi Suman's career graph has been the stuff dreams are made of, complete with the occasional nightmare thrown in. He auditioned for reality shows like ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’ and ‘Indian Idol’. He made it to the top 10 of Idol, but the actual battle was yet to begin. The young singer spent his nights under bus stands because he could not find a roof for himself in the megapolis. But a call from Sanjay Leela Bhansali Films' CEO Sandeep Singh changed his world.

Singh, who happened to hear one of Suman’s compositions on Idol, helped him get work. He was also the first person to discover the composer in Suman. Singh’s faith in Suman has not decreased over the years. He not only introduced Suman to Bhansali, but also got him various other projects, ‘Mary Kom’ being one of them.

“Sandeepji is my godfather in the industry. He has shown immense faith in our (Shashi-Shivam) work,” stated Suman.

The composer who has worked on ‘Ram Leela’ and ‘Bajirao Mastani’ as Assistant Director with Sanjay Leela Bhansali continues to work with him. But, when it comes to solo projects, he works with his Idol co-contestant and now his friend cum partner, Shivam Pathak. The duo created some beautiful compositions together in ‘Mary Kom’ and they created the same magic in ‘Sarbjit’ with ‘Nindiya’.

“We have never thought about giving a hit song to a film. Our focus is only to make the music as per the film's requirements and the situations given to us. We look at doing justice to the film at the end of the day. While we do this, we also explore the genre musically. For example for ‘Mary Kom’ we explored Manipuri music because Mary Kom is from Manipur. We used a lot of it in the film.”

In Sarbjit’s case, the duo tried to send a positive message with ‘Nindiya’. The song plays at the end of the film; in this scene, Sarbjit’s body is sent back to India from Pakistan. “We were asked to make an emotional song because it plays in a very emotional moment. It was challenging for the song had to reach the people. The moment is a sad one, but instead of making a sad song we made it a positive one,” explained Suman.

He is busy composing for Bollywood films but has not left his passion for singing behind. He still holds it close to his heart as he does his riyaaz everyday for at least an hour. The singer-composer believes that if you quit practising, you tend to forget the art.