MUMBAI: It’s not every day that one gets lucrative offers, but when it pours work, tough choices need to be made. Filmfare winning composer Sameer Uddin had to make a similar choice between Junglee and Gully Boy.

The Ranveer Singh starrer was definitely a film to kill for and Sameer wished he had the bandwidth to make it work. “They (Gully Boy Team) wanted me to work on the emotional side of the film through the score. But unfortunately, there was no time. So, I had to excuse myself from that lovely project,” says Sameer who has earlier given the score to Kapoor and Sons.

Sameer was busy working on Chuck Russell’s directorial project Junglee that’s currently doing well at the box-office. He has given music to this forest adventure that stars Vidyut Jammwal.

It was Badass Babuaa from Bareilly Ki Barfi that brought Junglee to Sameer. “We had managed to crack a good sound for Badass Babuaa. Around that time, I had an alliance with Junglee Pictures. They were very keen to work with us on this project. The director of Mask, Chuck Russell was directing it, so I jumped at it. I was excited from the word ‘Go’,” explains the composer who worked for almost a year and a half to complete the music of this jungle adventure.

Watch Badass Babuaa

Sameer also shared a good bond with Russell. “He (Russell) has a very strong spiritual side. He also likes the culture of east in general. So, we got on with things well,” he reveals.

The songs in the film do not fall in the party, ballet or sad song category, something that Bollywood is following at present. Sameer chose to go against the tide and it was the conviction of his producers that helped him go ahead with it. “There are chances that someone will say this is not tangible stuff, let’s do differently. But the producers (Vineet Jain, Priti Shahani) of Junglee believed in it,” he shares.

“We wanted to do things that are relevant to the ecosystem. We thought of having fun with Junglee’s music,” exclaims Sameer.

Going against the popular demand has been Sameer’s style. She shares on the same, “With Neha (Bhasin), we started revisiting folk music with conviction. The idea was to serve old wine in a new bottle.”

Check the song here

He further explains, “There is no fear. We are here to make music, make a difference, we have a voice and we will stand by it.”

Sameer is currently working on the Kunal Khemu starrer Lootcase.