Sneha Khanwalkar has the distinction of being the only woman composer currently scoring for Hindi film music. Six films on, the girl from Indore is sexing up folk music with gun shots and manic screamsu00a0

Twenty-six year-old Sneha Khanwalkar is in an enviable position. She makes music on the road, finds folk references across the country and has worked with some of the best minds in the business -- Ram Gopal Varma (Sarkar Raj), Anurag Kashyap and most recently, Dibakar Bannerjee for Love Sex aur Dhokha (LSD). In true LSD style we prep our comps for a video chat when she's in Ranchi, the heart of the country's agricultural belt and steel hub Jharkhand. After five attempts, we laugh and give up, switching to the more reliable mobile phone.



Two minutes into the chat and we're ready to call Dibakar's bluff for portraying a video-savvy rural India in his film. "Yeh LSD kuch nahin hota," jokes Sneha, "I'm having a tough time charging equipment here." Here the pretty Maharashtrian composer tells us how she manages to stay out of the studio for most part of the job, and harnesses folk music to produce gritty, snappy tunes for Hindi films.

What takes you to Ranchi?

I'm researching for Anurag Kashyap's next film, Vasepur, produced by UTV. The film is setu00a0 in Dhanbad. The shooting starts in June. I began looking for folk music but found some nice classical and tribal music. There's a music festival going on now, so I might find something there. I'm also sure someone will set out on a political march and there might be some fun music happening there too, but the tribal music is what sounds exciting for now.

What's the story behind the girl from Indore arriving in the film industry?
My parents decided to move to Mumbai a few years ago just so that my brother and I could get a taste of the life here. I did some animation work before doing art direction for films. When I saw how the crew working on films eat, drink and sleep the projects they do, I was hooked. Instinctively, I knew my medium here would be music, although I had an anti-music attitude when I was growing up. My cousins and I were constantly badgered to sing a line or two when a relative showed up at home. At one family gathering, my cousins and I walked down the stairs into the courtyard, singing Chappa Chappa Charkha Chale from Maachis, while banging steel thalis. We started from the first floor because we knew we'd be asked to sing as soon as we came down.

For some reason, that gesture was appreciated. Anything we did became an act. When I moved to Mumbai, music came back to bite me. So, I thought, agar karna hai toh jhak maarke karna hai.u00a0

You've travelled to Punjab and Haryana to find music for Oye Lucky Lucky Oye. How did you work out this travelling composer deal?
I travel only to make the most of the experiences that I may have missed out on while growing up. We didn't have that sort of upbringing in Indore. On a personal level, I want to keep travelling till I hit 30, but that doesn't mean that I will only pick films that let me travel. If a film doesn't require a regional flavour and research, I'm fine with composing right here in Mumbai. Dibakar knew my feet had wings. I'd composed one track for him for a period film that's yet to release, and I'd travelled to Bhopal to meet an author who gave me some references for the track. It was just one track but the author had categorically told me that if I needed to hear anything, I'd have to meet him in person. For Oye Lucky, Punjabi music was very new to me and I felt I didn't know enough to score an entire soundtrack with a Punjabi feel. Besides, I was depressed at that time and wanted to get away from the city.u00a0

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