JOIN USRemember Mauka Mauka commercial on TV ahead of India-Pakistan match during ICC World Cup 2015? Meet the men behind them, Rohan Utpat and Vinayak Salvi, music composers who are responsible for many such super-hit commercials. Their first break as music directors was making music for JK Cement with Chrome Pictures advertisement. This was followed by working with Nestle, ITC, Britania, Unilever, Ultratech cement, Indian Idol and Indian Idol Junior to name a few.
Having composed music for almost 500 ads , the two then moved forward towards their first movie venture Nil Battey Sannata directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, in which they composed five tracks and themes.
In a candid conversation with Metrolife, they talk us about creating music for TV commercials and the technicalities involved.
What does it take to compose music for TV commercials?
It is completely a director’s brief on what should be the mood of music considering the film. There is a two-way conversation and a collective call is taken ahead. You have to be open to all kind of music to do music for TV commercials.
What are the technicalities involved?
There is lot of time constraint because of the film duration. It varies from 10 seconds to 90 seconds. So the task is creating a track within the specific duration. The fun part is
that one day you are doing some Indian music and other day you are required to do western music, or only percussive tracks, or a wacky sounding track. Making music for TV commercials is not only about jingles or tunes now. It demands the use different kind of sounds sometimes.
Did you feel any pressure after Mauka Mauka was launched?
It was like just another track. We were asked to do a qawwali sufi rock track.
And qawwali involves jugalbandi sometimes. The lyrics of the first commercial didn’t
say anything about cricket or anything. We were told to just get the feel of qawwali. We were never under any pressure as such. We cannot expect every 10th ad of ours to be musically hit.
Despite flourishing in TV commercial industry, why did you decide to venture into movies?
Movies a big canvas where you can show your art. Here there is no time constraint of 30 seconds or one minute like TV ads. It’s more about your space, sound and tune you want to present to the world. Nil Battey Sannata allowed us to present the sound we like and the music space we like, to the audience.