- News>
- Newspapers
Silent sounds: Indian Express
Mumbai, July 31: It is an irony that on one hand, background music has acquired an increased significance in films and on the other hand, music composers are forced to work under severe budgetary and time constraints,` says Ranjit Barot, whose award-winning background score in AKS, made a marked difference to the film.
Mumbai, July 31: It is an irony that on one hand, background music has acquired an increased significance in films and on the other hand, music composers are forced to work under severe budgetary and time constraints,” says Ranjit Barot, whose award-winning background score in AKS, made a marked difference to the film.
The ideal rate in the market,for an average background score,is anywhere in the range of Rs 20- 25 lakhs, but Barot reveals that with the exception of a few select banners, that is hardly the budget that producers allocate for background scores. Says Barot, “By and large the remuneration is hardly in keeping with the efforts that go into it. I recently completed a film forRs 12 lakhs inclusive of studio costs. Then, there are producers who give big references of Hollywood and James Bond films but all they pay you is somewhere in the range of Rs 6-8 lakhs. In addition, they expect you to complete the score in a period of 15-20 days, as against Hollywood studios which give atleast 3-4 months for the background score of a film. Besides, the budgets keep changing with the constraints of every producer, though there are select banners like Rajshris who have larger budgets for background scores and spend as much as Rs 75,000 a day on orchestration.”
Barot points out that there was a time when music directors like Laxmikant Pyarelal and R.D. Burman handled the music of the entire film and went great lengths to justify the background music. “In films like Khuda Gawah, for instance, there were 100 musicians working on the background score every day. That was an entirely different experience. In contrast, background score has become like a fast food franchise,” he says.
Music-directors Salim-Suleiman who kept the audiences glued to their seats with their spine chilling score in Bhoot and now Darna Mana Hai, besides Qayamat, feel that music composers who provide background music are highly underrated in terms of remuneration. “It is an irony that producers still relegate background music to the background when it comes to the price factor, as against the regular songs in a film. Then there are others who have killed the market by under-pricing and agreeing to compose music at rates as low as Rs 6 lakhs,” says Salim. Besides, they feel that quality background music will soon acquire an indispensable place in films. “That’s because songs no longer mak an impact on the audience. They have now begun to look at songs as a reason for walking out of a theatre and taking a puff. Producers are now looking at background music composers to create the magic of keeping the audiences glued to their seats. The new genre of slick medium-budget films and suspense thrillers, have made background music all the more important in films,” says Salim, adding that films in the genre of Bhoot have changed the whole concept of background music.
It is music director Pyarelal who has the final say. “I don’t deny that the background scores in some recent films have made a sizeable impact on the the audiences, but the real effect of background music was during the days of Shankar Jaikishan and Naushad, when they really worked hard to get the desired effect. No one can forget the haunting effect of Shankar Jaikishan’s score in Gumnaam. But, that was a different age altogether when there were formidable budgets for the music of films and music directors were entrusted with the entire music. Today, producers have 4-7 music composers for different songs in a film and it is difficult to figure out which of the composers composed which song. As for the background score these days, a majority of background music directors are extended versions of music arrangers, who try to get desired effects on a keyboard,” he says.
The ideal rate in the market,for an average background score,is anywhere in the range of Rs 20- 25 lakhs, but Barot reveals that with the exception of a few select banners, that is hardly the budget that producers allocate for background scores. Says Barot, “By and large the remuneration is hardly in keeping with the efforts that go into it. I recently completed a film forRs 12 lakhs inclusive of studio costs. Then, there are producers who give big references of Hollywood and James Bond films but all they pay you is somewhere in the range of Rs 6-8 lakhs. In addition, they expect you to complete the score in a period of 15-20 days, as against Hollywood studios which give atleast 3-4 months for the background score of a film. Besides, the budgets keep changing with the constraints of every producer, though there are select banners like Rajshris who have larger budgets for background scores and spend as much as Rs 75,000 a day on orchestration.”
Barot points out that there was a time when music directors like Laxmikant Pyarelal and R.D. Burman handled the music of the entire film and went great lengths to justify the background music. “In films like Khuda Gawah, for instance, there were 100 musicians working on the background score every day. That was an entirely different experience. In contrast, background score has become like a fast food franchise,” he says.
Music-directors Salim-Suleiman who kept the audiences glued to their seats with their spine chilling score in Bhoot and now Darna Mana Hai, besides Qayamat, feel that music composers who provide background music are highly underrated in terms of remuneration. “It is an irony that producers still relegate background music to the background when it comes to the price factor, as against the regular songs in a film. Then there are others who have killed the market by under-pricing and agreeing to compose music at rates as low as Rs 6 lakhs,” says Salim. Besides, they feel that quality background music will soon acquire an indispensable place in films. “That’s because songs no longer mak an impact on the audience. They have now begun to look at songs as a reason for walking out of a theatre and taking a puff. Producers are now looking at background music composers to create the magic of keeping the audiences glued to their seats. The new genre of slick medium-budget films and suspense thrillers, have made background music all the more important in films,” says Salim, adding that films in the genre of Bhoot have changed the whole concept of background music.
It is music director Pyarelal who has the final say. “I don’t deny that the background scores in some recent films have made a sizeable impact on the the audiences, but the real effect of background music was during the days of Shankar Jaikishan and Naushad, when they really worked hard to get the desired effect. No one can forget the haunting effect of Shankar Jaikishan’s score in Gumnaam. But, that was a different age altogether when there were formidable budgets for the music of films and music directors were entrusted with the entire music. Today, producers have 4-7 music composers for different songs in a film and it is difficult to figure out which of the composers composed which song. As for the background score these days, a majority of background music directors are extended versions of music arrangers, who try to get desired effects on a keyboard,” he says.