MUMBAI: Composer Rochak Kohli of Vicky Donar fame has given various hit and quality songs to the industry. One out of them is Irrfan Khan starrer film Qarib Qarib Singlle which will be premiered on television for the first time on 17 February.

It was not long also when Kohli stepped into the music business, but today he understands the working style of the industry. “There are three kinds of approach in the industry for a song, one is mujhe hit gaana chahiye which I do not follow. I think I am not capable enough of working towards hit songs and there are some songs that are made with a pure heart with no agenda. The second approach is made on the basis of the film situation. During this time there are songs from the bank which come in use. The third way of creating a song is going with the script,” says the composer.

Kohli may not be working towards hit songs, but he definitely has a secret formula to his share of hits. “I love to create songs along with the script. When the makers approached me for Qarib Qarib Singlle, they were still in the process of writing the script. Also, this is the time when one faces a lot many changes in the cast, budget, storyline and more. There are a lot of challenges in making songs for the film too and I believe it actually goes with the script hand in hand. A bond with the director is very important because knowing his/her mind helps us to understand the idea better. And then you don’t think of creating a hit song, you are just true to the script,” the Pani Da music director explains.

In his Bollywood musical journey till date, he has learnt that it is a great experience to work with the director on the script. “There is a creative side in me that wants to go with the script and create magic. I am doing an album of a film called Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh and have been working on it from February 2017, it is going ahead with the script. It feels great to be a part of the script and see it growing,” says Kohli.

Every artiste faces certain challenges while working on a project, so did the composer. “I made a song called Tu Chale Toh which talks about food with quirky lyrics, but the makers changed the situation and wanted another song to fit in there. So, I went through another three months of the process, re-wrote the lyrics and put it on the same tunes,” added the Pal hitmaker.

Now that independent music space is gradually seeking audience attention, many Bollywood artisets are also in plans of getting into that zone to showcase the other side of music. The music director has not yet entered the independent music space but it is on his to-do-list. “It is fun working on indie music because it gives the liberty to create any kind of music and gets some different music within you. We all want to venture into independent space but the truth is it is too time consuming. Also, there aren’t any good producers in the industry in terms of Indie music, because it needs to be glamorous and of good quality, something like the west that should look posh. I see us slowly moving into that space and wish to get into this soon,” he said.

The composer has started performing live. In fact, he performed at Ranthambore Festival (Rajasthan) and in Chandigarh. For him live shows are a good practice to know the songs people love and the ones that haven’t reached up to them. He expressed that it is a great feeling when the audience sings the songs along.

Re-created songs have been ruling the music space since 2016. The industry gave various variety of re-created songs out of which some managed to be hit-makers again. Kohli too has worked on some existing compositions. “I see re-created songs in a very different way. The song taken is already a hit and it is a responsibility to create a bigger hit with the mood and feel of the original one. But I am happy in my space and for me composing a fresh song is much more fun. Also, I would like to add one more thing is that while re-creating, we should not take away the credit from the original composer of the song who has worked 10 times harder on creating it.”

For this year, the composer is collaborating with many Punjabi artistes for his Bollywood projects. He has seen them as big names in countries like USA, Canada, London apart from India. There are some not much-known faces but amazing talents with whom the composer will be seen working.