On this album, we hope everyone finds their big surprise

The phone call comes at 11.45 at night after a whole day of waiting. But it’s well worth it, Sachin Sanghvi and Jigar Saraiya are always a delight to speak to. And their passion and delight about speaking of their craft, their music and the people they’ve come to call family just shines through.They’re audibly tired, but the energy in their voices is electric when you bring up the topic of the music they’ve composed for ABCD2 the sequel of a film they’re in love with.  And it shows. Two songs have been released so far — and both are songs that have a strong connect to ABCD. However, they’ll tell you that they’re totally different songs. We’ve heard the numbers and would agree to some extent.

Excerpts from the conversation:

What about the original Bezubaan left you speechless?
Sachin: I guess the fact that there were no inhibitions, there was no benchmark to cross. The brief was simply to create something nice and different. 
Jigar: Remo had the vision that if you make the right song here, it will forever be the flagship song of the ABCD franchise.
Sachin: We knew it even before we composed it and that dragged us to make and come up with those four lines that will come up in all the ABCDs to follow, I guess.

What still leaves you speechless about it?
S: Those four lines (Bezubaan kabse main raha, begunaah sehta main raha...). It’s the soul of the script. The story is always going to be about the underdog. the guy who  goes out and wins against all odds. There is a lot of rage, a lot of aggression in the first part...
J: This time what really made me speechless was the next-level choreography. They’ve totally outdone themselves. When you watch the film, you’ll see!

Why the difference in language of the rap
S: Hip-hop focuses on the spoken word. That’s a form of expression. Around the soulful tune that Bezubaan, there’s also that angst because you need to put iot out there that the character is going through that struggle. Last time around we found Dean. She came up with these lines that really worked at the time.
J: This time around, we tried a Filipino guy to rap for us. 
S: The first time around, rap as a genre was really new in Bollywood and we thought we should do this honestly. Now, I think our audience has accepted rap as a genre and they will accept it in their own language which they can speak and sing along. So, the idea was pretty much to have a layman to have access to a rap section played in his authentic style.

Why the change in singers?
S: Phir Se is a continuation of Bezubaan in a way, but they’re both different songs. The aggression that Phir Se has cannot have the same voices
J: It’s a different song altogether. 

Different? How?
S: It could’ve been another song. if you don't hear those four lines, it is another song. This time, it could have just been a promotional gig.
J: It’s a part of the story.
S: It IS the story, bro. The story of the underdog. When you hit that mark, where the underdog is going to rise to the moment you’re going to have to play this song.

Talk about how Sun Saathiya became a full-fledged song, from barely being there in the background score in the first part.
J: The story of Sun Saathiya is really amazing. When we were doing the background score for  ABCD — its in the scene where Lauren Gottlieb dances — it was to be used as background music. 
S: I remember we were running against the deadline and one night, we saw the sequence and felt that it required a song. We called Remo Sir and asked if we could make a song for this situation. he said, ‘You know what, Sachin, I was looking at the same scene and felt the same way. Three hours passed, we wrote it at night. Remo came in at 3.30 to hear the song. He said ‘Its fantastic, go for it.’ [The song made it to the film in a much shorter avatar] After the film started doing well, we started getting messages for this song, ‘Why is this song not in the album?’ and ‘Why is it not getting promoted”’ etc. Then I remember that conversation with Remo Sir when he assured us, ‘Make the full song. This is the love song of ABCD 2. We knew it then

Are these the best tracks off the album.
S: There are eight other tracks and while we don’t know how they all will do commercially, but it will make you think about it and go back and listen to it again this time. All of it is coming from this new genre of music called swing hop or maybe trap hop, rap fused with indian beats. We’ve also done a pure classical song (no hint of fusion).
 
Divya’s become a regular with you guys.
S: He’s part of the band and the family. And there will always be these artists who you gel with. He’s so talented. we as composers dont feel we have really given him a song that explores his talent to the best. until then we won’t feel that weve done jsutice to his talent.

What to expect from the rest of the album?
S: There’s something for everyone. I hope everyone finds their big surprise on this album.