In an interview with mid-day, Farhan Akhar is thankful that he is a musician, and how his father, Javed Akhtar, has influenced his song writing
A successful filmmaker, actor, singer and live performer, Farhan Akhtar dons several hats. Amidst promoting his upcoming film, 'Rock On!! 2', a project he is quite
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excited about, the actor is taking time out to perform at music concerts. In fact, he is going to be sharing the stage with Flo Rida, Arijit Singh and Alan Walker, at the Enchanted Valley Carnival next month. Here, Farhan gets candid about his love for music, how his father — veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar — has contributed to his writing, his band’s upcoming projects, and more.
What do you enjoy more, recording in the studio or performing live?
Performing live, by far.
In the last few years, India’s festival scene has seen a big boom. More and more international acts now come to the country. As a musician, how do you see this trend?
I hope it’s not a trend. I hope it becomes a norm. I think it’s important for audiences here to have exposure to all kinds of music, because we predominantly get to hear film music on radio or TV. So, it’s nice to have exposure to an alternate culture that’s booming. I hope more international artistes realise that they have a huge fan base in India. I want them to travel to India and entertain their fans because, at times, it’s not easy for their fans to go and watch them somewhere else.
What does music mean to you?
It means love. I guess that’s how I can put it. It’s a universal language of love.
Talking of love, what’s your first love — acting, singing or filmmaking?
I don’t really have an answer to that question. They are all a part of who I am. They all make up this person called Farhan. It’s difficult for me to segregate these aspects. But, I do enjoy them all tremendously.
What’s your dream as a musician?
To start with, I want to have the ability to constantly be inspired, and to keep writing songs. I also want to travel the world. Any artiste would want to do that.
Given a chance, which musician would you want to work with?
Ummm, wow! Keeping music aside, the songs I write are rooted in a folk-rock space. So, it would be great to collaborate with somebody from the world of folk-rock, probably more towards alternate rock. Maybe, an act like Radiohead, for example.
Has your father influenced you?
Definitely, especially when it comes to writing in Hindi. He’s explained to me that one can write however they want in
English, as the language offers a lot more freedom and flexibility in terms of metering and rhyme, compared to Hindi and Urdu. The latter come from a poetictradition. So, a traditional structure needs to be followed while writing in Hindi and Urdu. You can’t mess around with that. You need to stick to the structure to become a good writer.
As a child, which profession did you want to choose when growing up?
I never imagined myself in any profession as a kid. So, I feel happy about the fact that I have a profession now (smiles). While growing up, I was really fascinated by films. So, that’s why I probably took to films more naturally
when I started thinking about what I wanted to do. But, I never imagined myself playing in a band. I’m thankful that it happened, because it’s given me a certain joy and perspective in life.
What role has Rock On!! played in your musical career?
There has been a rekindling of my love and desire to sing and play musical instruments. The last eight years have been a journey in that direction, whether it is performing live or writing and composing my own songs. That has happened because of the experience I had with Rock On!! We were a fictional band of sorts in the film, but it gave us the joy of creating music. I just moved along in that direction.
Do you think Rock On!! 2 will get the same kind of reception that Rock On!! received?
I don’t think it’s possible to ever replicate something that’s happened before, because even when we made the first one, nobody knew what was going to happen to the film. So, all we could do was to try and work with the same amount of honesty, dedication and commitment with which we made the first film. Hopefully, people will recognise that again.
What is your band up to?
There is a lot of original music that we’ve created. That’s work in progress currently. We started off by doing covers of popular film songs, and eventually grew in an inward direction. We want our music to showcase what we want to say and the stories that talk about our lives and what we feel.
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