DNA Exclusive: Indian music composer Atif Afzal bags Marvel project, talks about his upcoming work too

Meet KPMG engineer turned music director Atif Afzal, who has been working in the industry for nearly eight years now. Atif has bagged Hollywood projects like NCIS: Los Angeles and Twilight Zone - 2, in the past.

Atif, who has shifted base to New York, had previously worked on advertisements as well as provided music for Marathi films like 'Pune 52' and 'Baji'. He also worked on the German film 'The Gift'. He has now bagged a project with Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Atif will be working a Hindi song for the MCU project. DNA got in touch with him and Afzal revealed his future projects - with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Adhyayan Suman and the Netflix film 'Bachelor Girls' - as well.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Is it right that MCU has approached you for a Hindi song?

I was approached by Marvel's music supervisor Shannon Murphy for the Indian song for the upcoming Marvel film. This was absolutely unexpected as Marvel films usually don't have Bollywood style tracks. I am extremely excited about this and looking forward to it. After working on independent American films like The Alternative and Horn Please, I got recognition that lead to NCIS: Los Angeles and The Twilight Zone with CBS Television Network. And the best happened when I was approached for this Marvel film. Fingers crossed!

Tell me about The Twilight Zone - 2.

The Twilight Zone 2 happened immediately after NCIS: Los Angeles. I would like to believe that they liked my work and offered me to compose for another major American television series. I am glad to be a part of this legacy. The music I composed for this series was cinematic tribal, which is quite rare. I did have to study South American tribal forms and also Canadian tribal forms like the Innuit. The eventual track was really pleasing as I have never composed anything like this in my entire career.

Tell me about World Music Catalogue.

My world music catalog is called World Music Hub, which is an artificial intelligence based music library and designed on a Neomorphism based website. I have brought my musical and engineering expertise into this new venture of mine. It is technologically and musicall extremely advanced and can change the entire game of how music is synced with the film. World Music Hub is a one of its kind all-inclusive production music library providing authentic world music for TV shows, films, trailers and commercials. It has the deepest and broadest world music collection with over 120 catalogs representing 104 countries and genres. More than 5000 high-quality tracks are curated, recorded and produced by the best musicians in the world using local, folk instruments. 

How did you bag NCIS: Los Angeles?

When we all in New York were going through the toughest phase in our lives due to the corona virus, this is something that happened to me. It was again really unexpected as I was never in talks with CBS. One day I received an email from them asking me to compose an Arabic Hip Hop track for their show. The track's name is Habibi Alsieda. This was really exciting for me to be working with one of America's top television channels and for one of the most popular shows here. It is similar to Priyanka Chopra's Quantico, an action police drama and thriller that keeps you at the edge of your seats. 

You left your highly-paying job to pursue passion in music and even shifted to New York. What made you take this huge risk?

This is a great question. I am a big risk taker in life, whether it is life, career or even the stock market! I think that's how my genes are programmed. No risk, no gain formula has worked for me so far. But yes, it is true, that you have to be prepared to take the pain. When I left my corporate job at KPMG in 2010, I jumped into Bollywood as a total outsider. I built my network and trusted my talent. In between I won the Radio Mirch Best Upcoming Composer award and DD Sahyadri award for my music in Pune 52. That somewhere gave me faith in my decision to follow my passion. The same thought process when I decided to come to Hollywood. I worked 14 - 18 hours a day when I came to New York so that I could do music and also pay off my bills here. All the hard work eventually is paying off now. It is a journey of 10 years!

Any other upcoming projects we could look forward to?

I recently worked on a film called Trip with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra from NY. I also did a soundtrack for a Netflix film called Bachelor Girls. I have two upcoming Bollywood releases - Black Bud starring Atul Kulkarni and DNA of Love starring Adhyayan Suman. There is one major upcoming project which I can not talk about at the moment, but will speak about it soon!