The world needs to wake up to our music: Author Vikram Sampath

Gauhar Jaan! — The Life and Times Of A Musician, by author Vikram Sampath tells the story of the tumultuous life of Hindustani classical vocalist and courtesan, Gauhar Jaan, who was incidentally also the first Indian to have recorded her voice. The book, which was launched in April last year, has won a lot of acclaim since then, the latest achievement being listed for the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC).

Begun in 1991, the awards are presented to recognise outstanding published research in the field of recorded sound and brings together professionals involved in preservation and propagation of sound recordings across the world, in all genres. Excerpts from an interview with the author:

How did your book become a part of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) awards?
My publishers informed me that my book had made it to the final list of this year’s awards. Since Gauhar Jaan, the protagonist of my book, was the first Indian classical musician to have made commercial recordings on the gramophone on 1902, it probably caught their interest and attention and the book made it this far in what I am told was a long judging process!

Your book has been listed for the awards under the category of folk and ethnic music. Were you hoping it was under a different category?
Whether it’s the Grammy Awards or on any international forum for music, Indian classical music sadly gets categorised under this broad and disparate group of ethnic/folk/country music! It is a commentary of how the world has still not woken up to the fact that our classical music system is one of the most ancient and yet the most scientific and advanced genres of music. I feel we are as much to blame, as we haven’t successfully marketed the greatness of this art-form to the rest of the world. But having said that, I do feel humbled that this was the first time ever that the ARSC has recognised and given a slot to Indian classical music.

Considering it’s a very poignant biography, are there any movie adaptations in the pipeline?
There have been several offers from Bollywood to adapt the story to a film and I am in the process of finalising things. However, I am treading with caution having seen how the film industry treats writers, even the most eminent ones. We still don’t have clear laws in our country safeguarding the rights of authors.

Is it difficult to find takers for history-based stories to turn into films?
In the couple of discussions I have had so far, it is obvious that commercial considerations weigh more. Somehow, classical music is seen to be as a non-feasible theme, commercially. Producers want to know who would play the lead, whether the sets would be grand, whether the story would be staid or have some masala in it!