Prem Keetanu: Gaurav Verma says music will be the film’s calling card

Gaurav Verma. Pics/Youtube, By Special Arrangement

Producer of Jawan and Darlings and former head of Red Chillies Entertainment, Gaurav Verma is stepping out of the studio system with the new buddy comedy Prem Keetanu, his first production under his own banner. Rather than lean on a familiar face or a pre-sold star vehicle, Verma has backed a young, small-town story about boys who come to a big city chasing education, ambition and a life of their own. "It's a story of boys who have come from a small town to a big town for education, trying to find something in their lives. Most of us have hustled through that and lived that life, so you find it nostalgic and relatable. And secondly, the world is the same. The world is hustling even at today's rate," he says.

Verma, who has spent years operating within the studio ecosystem insists that while the banner may have changed, the fundamental responsibility of a producer has not. "The difference has been to have a banner of your own. Whether you are a dependent producer or you're independent, the responsibility and accountability pretty much stays the same. When you're independent, you go through your round of checks, how to probably go about the film and how do you want to position the film. It's not the brand which will position the film, it is the film that will position itself."

A still from ‘Prem Keetanu'

That philosophy extended to the making of Prem Keetanu, particularly its music. The film has seven original songs, which is unusually expansive album at a time when Hindi cinema has increasingly favoured singles, recreated tracks or shorter soundtracks. "When we grew up, music used to play a lot of part in terms of how we used to dream about life and how we used to visualise everything. So, we worked on that simultaneously when the script was being developed. Our first exposure to any film was music. Our feelings came from music, the affinity towards film came from music, to actors came from music. If I go back to the 90s when I was growing up, even if it was a film that has not done well, I knew the actor because I was listening to that track every day."

That became particularly important for Prem Keetanu, which features a relatively unfamiliar cast. "We realised that if we have a cast which is not so familiar, they are yet to make their mark. And if you're working with them, music is something which will help us build that equity with the audience. That was a conscious call."

For Verma, songs also serve a storytelling function that he feels Hindi cinema has gradually moved away from. "We wanted lyrics to have sometimes more depth than the dialogue themselves. And we wanted to use the lyrics to express more, to establish the mood and the tempo of the scene correctly and with more depth."

He sees the success of music-driven young romances, including Saiyaara, as evidence that audiences can still respond to this grammar when the songs are organically tied to the film. "Music stays beyond the film and it has a deeper interaction with people more than the film. We are not pushing our cast, we are pushing the film. Our world is Prem Keetanu's. Slowly and gradually, how will the world of Prem Keetanu's exposure come? It can't come from actors, it will come from the content."

‘Jawan' and ‘Darlings'

During his stint at Red Chillies Entertainment, Gaurav Verma produced hits such as ‘Jawan' and ‘Darlings'