Dentist-turned-music director Ricky Kej is thrilled he is cutting his teeth in Bollywood
Dentist-turned-music director Ricky Kej is thrilled he is cutting his teeth in Bollywood
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He is a young dentist but prefers to stay from a dental clinic. Instead, he'd rather be in the familiar confines of his cosy chic music studio in Indiranagar.
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NORTH WINDS: Ricky Kej isu00a0 making music for Woh Paanch Din, a suspense thriller. |
Ricky Kej, who is already well known for his music in Sandalwood namelyu00a0'Venkata in Sankata', 'Crazy Kutumba,' will soon step into Bollywood with a suspense thriller called 'Woh Paanch Din'. "I am really excited about the fact that my debut Hindi film is a suspense thriller," says Ricky. "It's a genre that I love working with and co-incidentally my debut in Kannada too was a suspense thriller - Ramesh Aravind's ' Accident'.
Sandeep Malani, who has done the scripting for the Ranbir-Katrina movie, 'Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani' is directing 'Woh Paanch Din.' As a close pal, Ricky was more than happy to compose three songs and background score for Sandeep's directorial debut. "The director Sandeep is a close friend and working in this film has been very simple and a really good learning experience. I composed the tunes. He loved them, the crew and producer liked them so we went ahead with it," says Ricky.
It is a film about four call center employees, who go for a five-day vacation to Nainital, and then something happens. The film has a new star cast comprising Gladrags super models and reality show winners. 'Woh Panch Din' is slated for release in April 2010. Sukhwinder Singh, Sunidhi Chauhan and Kunal Ganjawala have lent their voices for the movie.
Of the three songs, there is a peppy item number called, 'Bareily ki Albeli,' 'Dhoom Dharaka', a fun song on love and friendship and the title track. However, Ricky's favourite in the album is the title track. "It is my favourite as it is a bitter sweet song and it sounds like an anthem," says Ricky. The musicians and orchestra, used in the film, are, however, from the Karnataka music industry.
"I am very happy that my producers agreed to my request of carrying out this entire music production including the background score in Bangalore. This has made my work easier," says Ricky. "I am comfortable with musicians here. They know exactly what I want and I also know how to extract work from them." Ricky will also soon be imparting music to a second mainstream Bollywood project titled 'Dil Mein Kuch Hone Laga'.
Music came into Ricky's life while studying in Bishop Cotton's school. Watching other boys play guitars, he wanted to follow the suit to be popular. But it was only after entering college, Ricky, who never received any formal training decided to take up music as a profession. "In college I joined a progressive rock band. It gave me a good foundation and exposure to music," he says.
A half Punjabi and Marwari by birth, Ricky has composed nearly 2, 500 jingles in the last nine years. Moreover, he has composed numerous lounge albums for the US, Europe, Chinese and Australian markets. Of all these, ' Kamasutra Lounge' featuring Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Hariharan, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and more such stalwarts of Indian musical scene topped the charts.u00a0u00a0
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Ricky, who likes fusion, however, does not want to categorise music into any genre.
"For me it is either good or bad music," says Ricky. "I love making and listening to experimental, fresh and fusion music."
But he does not deny the undisputable power of Bollywood music as according to him, present Hindi film music caters to all varieties from Indian and western classical to folk.
"In Bollywood you can change a Summer of 69' and people will take it. The crowd becomes energized the moment you play Bollywood music in any party," laughs Ricky
Ricky, who listens to music all the time, has his own favourites like Shankar Mahadevan Sonu Nigam Peter Gabrile and so on.
At present, he loves the new album of U2 and feels the new movies '3 Idiots' and 'Kurbaan' have got 'a very experimental sound'.
For Ricky, composing music is the purpose of his existence and he promises to continue doing so.
"I will keep on making music for whoever, anyone who wants it. I don't think I will ever get tired of it," says Ricky.
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