Bollywood's composer duos love working together

"Shekhar and I work in sync, we compose and arrange our music together and we learn a lot from working together. That apart, we're great friends and we work with our friends too, so we have a lot of fun. It's the best job in the whole world," Vishal Dadlani of music composer duo Vishal-Shekhar said.

Composers Vishal and Shekhar rose to fame after "Jhankaar Beats" (2003). They went on to give chartbusters for films like "Salaam Namaste", "Om Shanti Om", "Tashan" and "Dostana" among others.

The trend of composer duos is not new. Earlier decades too boasted of talented music directors like Shankar-Jaikishan, Kalyanji-Anandji, Laxmikant-Peareylal, Anand-Milind and Jatin-Lalit who wowed music buffs with their melodious songs.

More recently, others who have made their presence felt in Bollywood are Salim-Sulaiman, Sajid-Wajid and Nikhil-Vinay apart from Vishal-Shekhar.

Most composers who work in teams feel that working as a duo helps in sharing thoughts and generating ideas.

"It's always great to work with a partner because we both share our thoughts, our burdens, our ideas. We do have arguments but that's healthy and only so that we come out with a great track," said Uday, who has Justin as his music partner.

Justin, on the other hand, feels that working with a partner eases stress while working under enormous pressure to meet deadlines.

"Working as a duo is a strength. In a creative field like this when one is working under enormous pressure to create music that will be liked by all, your partner not only helps you professionally but also becomes a moral support.

"In such a situation, if one slips, the other can take care of things...partners have the advantage of dividing their work between each other," said Justin.

He added: "Working with a partner is a work marriage; so even if there are healthy creative arguments, it only helps in bettering the project."

Justin-Uday have composed music for the 2008 film "Hijack" and have recently worked on Sudhir Mishra's film "Sikandar".

Sajid-Wajid, who have given catchy, hit songs in films like "Welcome" and "Partner", say it's great fun working together as they complement each other.

"When we were kids, we used to fight on small things like food and now when we are grown up, we fight while creating music. It's fun. We completely complement each other," Sajid said.

"We are not just partners but we are brothers. We are two souls and one mind and that's the best part of working together," he added.
Sajid-Wajid's  forthcoming projects include "Kal Kisne Dhekha Hai", "Paying Guest" and "Veer".
However, creative arguments and personal conflicts have resulted in music director duos splitting despite giving several hit numbers.

Jatin-Lalit, who composed music for films like "Khamoshi", "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge", "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" and "Hum Tum" among others, split following a personal dispute.

The well-known duo of Nadeem-Shravan, who were behind chartbusters from films like"Aashiqui", "Saajan", "Raja Hindustani", "Dhadkan" and "Raaz", too split in 2005. But they have teamed up again and are composing for three movies that are under production.