Rocking it young

Fresh tunes

It is raining young talent in Bollywood. The latest one being the teenage singing sensation Palash Muchhal.

All of 18 years old, the boy has already taken the nation by storm with his compositions. He has been signed to compose music for 17 films and has a long queue of producers waiting for him to say yes.

The recently-released Shilpa Shetty production Dishkiyaoon (starring Sunny Deol, Harman Baweja) was Palash’s debut film. The young composer is all over the news for his blockbuster song “Party toh banti hai” from Bhootnath Returns. 

But music is not new to the Muchhal family. “My sister Palak Muchhal is a popular singer now. She is responsible for my entry into music. When I was four years old, Palak had returned from London, where she had gone for a show and had got many chocolates with her. I would feel how lucky she was to travel on work and get such good chocolates. Surprising as it may sound, but that pushed me towards music.”In no time, he became the youngest singer in Little Star, a famous group of music composer Kalyanji and Anandji. Palash considers Anandji as his first guru. “I was blessed to have had such a lovely childhood. I was the youngest member of Little Star and was pampered a lot. Being around such talented musicians helped me understand music,” he says.

The Muchhal family shifted their base to Mumbai from Indore for Palak’s musical career in 2006. And that helped Palash’s foray into showbiz. He started his career in Mumbai as an actor, and was featured in a few commercials. He got noticed by filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker, who was looking for a young boy with curly hair for his film Khele Hum Jee Jaan Se. “I played one of the young freedom fighters named Jhunku in the film. The experience of working for Ashutosh sir was unbelievable. I was the one who actually narrated the story to the audience, so had a lot of responsibility and I was only 13 at the time.”

But how did he move to music composing? It again links back to Khele Hum Jee Jaan Se. During the premiere of the movie, Palash met Harman Baweja and they became friends. Two years ago, when Palash started making music professionally, he made Harman listen to a few tracks. The actor asked Palash to keep those tracks aside. Later, during his birthday last year, on May 22, Palash and his family went to Dubai and got a call from Harman. It was something important and Palash had to cut his holiday and rush back to Mumbai. “It was one of the best birthday gifts I ever got. After my short vacation, I started working on my debut film. Producers Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty encouraged me. I got the opportunity to  compose four tracks for Dishkiyaoon.” After this, there was no stopping the young composer. “I composed songs for Bhootnath Returns. I am lucky and happy that the songs are all popular and getting some fabulous response.”

So, what kind of music does he like, and not like? The ardent fan of R D Burman and A R Rahman says, “I love soft romantic numbers that sooth my ears.”

The trend is also changing, Palash feels. “Now people like popular old songs. Films also have a segment where we need disco, party and wedding songs. I never used to like item songs, but I am working with Salman Khan as a composer and he once told me not to categorise music, and work according to the requirement of the film. I follow his advice diligently now.” 

The brother-sister duo is also working on a unique project for many years now. Palash explains, “We do shows for poor children who can’t afford medical treatment. Till date, we have contributed to 624 heart operations.”