Music composers Salim and Sulaiman are all set for the Indian premiere of their musical, ‘Disco Dancer’ on April 14. It had sold-out shows at West End, London last year. ‘Disco Dancer- The Musical’ will celebrate the legacy of Mithun Chakraborty, Bappi da, and B Subhash on a never-seen-before scale in the country.
In an exclusive conversation with Editorji, Salim Merchant speaks about the musical and the challenges of recreating the Mithun Chakraborty-starrer blockbuster ‘Disco Dancer’ for the stage.
What was Bappi Da's reaction when he heard about this upcoming composition. Did you also manage to get any feedback from him?
When I met him in 2019, I informed him that we were working on a new project and bringing back the 'Disco Dancer'. He said that I knew if anybody could bring back the Disco Dancer it could be you people. Hearing this made us extremely happy and extremely nervous simultaneously because of the expectations he had, and his family has. Although we lost him last year, his spirit is still with us. Bappi da told us, 'Hamara music ko aaplog zinda rakh raha hai'(You guys are keepinh my music alive).
How did you and Sulaiman collaborate to make this happen? How do you categorise "creativity" in your society?
To be completely honest, we have been working in collaboration for the past 31 years, and our debut album was released in 1992. We are brothers and members of the same family. I agree that we do have our disagreements and discussions but ultemately music always wins. And I believe that is the bottom line for us.
What excited you to give this form of music for the film , the 'Live Music'. Were there any specific challenges that you had to face?
Yeah, there were certain sounds that we wanted to recreate but getting back to the 1980s sounds was a tough task. We had to really work very hard and look for those sounds, to get that peculiar base sound and the peculiar guitar sound that made Bappi Lehri's music so popular. But we still found an alternate since the 'Sins' have a certain ability to emulate the 80s sound but obviously not like the authentic ones. But it was a great fun time working on them and we loved it.
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