Revisiting Pancham

Think of some of the best Indi and Bollywood remixes you've heard and it's quite possible that many of them would have been remixed by DJ Suketu.

Revisiting Pancham

The talented DJ has been busy churning out remixes for films and touring abroad for shows. And after a gap of four years, he’s back with an album ‘DJ Suketu & Friends Present RD Burman Reinvented’. “I hadn’t done an album as music companies are not really promoting Indi-pop. But people have been asking me to come out with one, so here it is! Also, people keep saying that 2012 is the year when the world will end, so I thought I’d better come out with one before that happens!” he laughs. DJ Suketu spoke to CS about his music and performing internationally:

Who: DJ Suketu
What: On his latest album and projects

Indi-pop calling
When the music company got in touch with me to do an album, we decided to it was time to revive Indi-pop. And what better way to do that than have Pancham da’s music. We just concentrated on his tracks. And since I didn’t want to do only remixes, I asked my singer friends to be a part of the album. There are ten songs in total including Pyar mein dil pe, Pyar humein kis modh pe, Aise na mujhe tum dekho, Mehbooba, Poocho na yaar kya hua and others. Singers like Sophie Choudry, Javed Ali, Chin2 Bhosle, Anusha Dandekar, Anushka Manchanda and others have lent their voices and inputs for the songs. We’ve taken a range of songs that include emotions from romantic, to funny to motivational.

Burman the great
I’ve always been a big fan of RD Burman. The reason we thought of doing an album dedicated to Pancham da is that he was always ahead of his time as a music composer. He used styles that nobody thought of. I’m a member of a group that organises concerts dedicated to him, where people who’ve worked with Pancham da are invited to come and speak about their experiences. A lot of these people have recounted how he used to always think out of the box. So if he was alive today, he would have been open to experimenting and trying out different things.

International exposure
It’s really good to know that Indian music is going places. I’ve done shows in places like Shallote and Portland and I’ve wondered if people would come to listen to somebody who plays Indian music. These shows were packed! And all these shows were attended by so many local Americans, who were dancing happily to Bollywood remixes! (laughs) Travelling out of India for shows is an experience I
really enjoy and look forward to.