MUMBAI: Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus Padmaavat was in news for both right and wrong reasons. Apart from stellar performances by the lead star cast, grand sets, astute direction, what stood apart was the music and the background score of the music. In a brief chat with Sanchit Balhara, the background music composer of the movie Padmaavat, we get a glimpse of the nuances of the art of composing background music.

"When we watch a film, we only experience two of the senses, seeing and hearing. As half the conscience focuses is spent on hearing the audio of the film, the score automatically becomes an important part of the experience. With a score, audience are able to understand the subconscious emotions (happy/sad/aggression etc) of the character or the environment,” Sanchit helps us understand the basics.

Elaborating further, Sanchit explains how only in India or Indian Film Industry there are different terms used for background score and composing music, “Both score as well as background music mean the same thing. Its only in our country, scores are termed as background music. In west, its just called music. And the two departments of music for a film in India are, background music and songs. For a layman’s understanding, songs are the ‘songs’ we hear in a film whereas background music is the music we hear throughout the film apart to the songs."

It would not be wrong to call Sanchit a Sanjay Leela Bhansali protege, considering he started his career with the maverick film director and continues to do so. Sanchit reminisces his experiences with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, "I had just come back studying music from Point Blank college,London. When I was finding work, I had a great fortune to become a part of the score of Ram-Leela (2013) as a music producer where I eventually met Sanjay Sir. After gaining a bit of confidence of approaching a score in Ram-Leela, stepped up to pitch as a background music composer for Bajirao Mastani. I started my film scoring career with Sanjay sir himself. It was like a dream come true for an aspiring composer like me. His experience and skills are a lot to learn from. Sanjay Sir is a master when it comes to any form of art. As he himself is so much musically gifted, it becomes easier for me to communicate music with him. I could even discuss at an instrumentation and arrangement level with him which is not always possible with every film director."

One of the most talked about scenes in the film Padmaavat is the Jauhar scene, and to design music for it was no cake walk for Sanchit either. He said, “The challenging part of scoring for 'Padmaavat' was the Jauhar sequence, which was composed before the film was even shot. Sanjay sir had described it exactly how it is going to be executed while shooting, which made my job slightly easier. Getting a sequence edited on score (as like for Jauhar scene) is a privilege for a score composer.”

Hailing from Haryana and belonging to a couple of artiste father and National level athelete mother, Sanchit has the best of both the worlds, as he once aspired to be a tennis player too. Currently, basking in glory with the stupendous success of Padmaavat, Sanchit looks forward with lot of optimism and working with many directors. However he doesn’t have any particular favourite.

"It’s pretty difficult to pick a few names out of the ocean of legends. Though, I would adapt to understanding of any director I get a chance to work with in future. Some of the projects I am onboard with haven’t been publicly announced. I will soon update everybody with the good news," ended the composer.