All Bollywood songs sound the same: Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt

New Delhi: Grammmy award winning Hindustani classical musician Vishwa Mohan Bhatt says that all the songs in Bollywood films sound the same and lack melody.

"All songs sound the same now. The songs are influenced by western beats, disco. Film music is all about dancing now. There is no melody," Bhatt told reporters. The 61-year-old world renowned Mohan veena player, who has worked with for movies with AR Rahman, Vishal Bhardwaj and Aadesh Shrivastava, said that he would love to make music for films but sadly there is hardly any scope for classical music in Bollywood projects. "There is no place for classical music in films. I would love to work in films. But it depends on the kind of cinema. The quality of films have changed, they are frivolous and full of slang. Classical music does not fit in the films. "But there are composers like AR Rahman who value classical music. He called me for `Lagaan` and `Sathiyaa`. I also worked with Vishal Bhardwaj and Aadesh Shrivastava," he said. The Padma Shri awardee has also made music for upcoming Indo-Chinese feature film `The Desire` starring Shilpa Shetty. "I have given the music for Shilpa Shetty`s film `The Desire`. I even won an award at the New Jersey film festival as well as New York and Germany film festivals," he said. Bhatt attracted international attention by his successful indianisation of the western Hawaiian guitar with his perfect assimilation of sitar, sarod and veena techniques, by giving it a evolutionary design & shape and by adding 14 more strings. He said that he wanted to create such an instrument that was a hybrid of the West and the East and could become part of Indian classical music scene, hence the birth of Mohan veena. "I wanted to make a new kind of music, which would have a distinct sound. That is why I created such an instrument, which has the aroma of our traditions. The sound is a mix of sitar, sarod, veena and also incorporates the singing nuances of classical music. The instrument can be loud, slow, aggressive and also express emotions," said Bhatt, who was in the capital for a benefit concert to create AIDS awareness. Only four Indians have won the Grammy so far and that too only when they collaborated with other western musicians. Sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, tabla wizard Zakir Hussain and Rahman have won the prestigious honour, besides Bhatt. In the past many distinguished Indian musicians have been nominated for the Grammys like Asha Bhosle, Louise Banks, Anoushka Shankar, Debashish Bhattacharya, Lakshmi Shankar and Bickram Ghosh to name a few, but the honour has evaded them so far. "I don`t think anything is lacking in our music. It is difficult to reach out to a global audience. There is just one category in the Grammys - Best World Music Album - and many musicians from various countries vy for the award. It is not so easy," he said. But Bhatt is very hopeful and says that this is the golden era as people are more aware about different kinds of music. "I think this is the golden era of music. A lot of artistes, companies are willing to invest in music. I am happy that our top graded artistes are so busy nowadays, performing not just in the country but all over the world. There is a lot of awareness and I think that things are definitely looking up," he said. PTI