Yo, dude! This is masala rock

Post Rock On, Bollywood directors have been cashing in on the latest discovery — rock music. Stars like Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan, Fardeen Khan and Ajay Devgan are all going crazy on stage, strumming guitars and thrashing microphones. But the city’s real rockers find it a very amateur portrayal of rock.

Randolph Correia of Shaair N Func feels that it’s hilarious to see these big stars as rock stars. “It’s crap! They seem to be playing rock stars for the villagers, giving them a distorted version of rockers and rock music. Stars are looking silly and stupid on stage. And there are lots of smart kids out there who know what rock is all about. It’s way below average.”

Musician Luke Kenny thinks that Bollywood is trying to milk the genre. “They think that if people have accepted it (with Rock On), then you should do the same thing. Bollywood is like a sponge. But sometimes it’s a corrupted version of the genre with certain music directors trying to get the job done with some beats and catchy lyrics,” says Luke.

One has also seen female actors like Mugdha Godse, Bipasha Basu and Asin behaving like groupies on stage as the boys take over. “We know Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan and they are stars who we have seen for many years. They do it for glorification and adulation of the audiences. They look like wannabe rock stars when you see them on stage. The directors should do a bit more research,” adds Randolph.

Prithwish Dev, lead vocalist of Them Clones, believes that rock bands could be roped in to do music for Bollywood films which have the rock element. “I wouldn’t mind doing tracks for Bollywood but it has to be in our style and we wouldn’t do it in Hindi. But rock in Bollywood is a case of stars trying to cash in on the growing popularity of our music,” he says.