Classic Remakes! Musician brothers, duo Salim and Sulaiman plan to re-enliven the golden era of Bollywood music

Classic Remakes!

Musician brothers, duo Salim and Sulaiman plan to re-enliven the golden era of Bollywood music

Music mavericks Salim-Sulaiman have been associated with some remarkable hits and collaborations, both with Indian and international artists — including Bollywood remixes for Grammy award-winning Lady Gaga for her songs Born This Way and Judas. Their next musical offering is The Bollywood Musical, which they call a ‘dream project’ — a pack of remakes of old classics from the ’60s and ’70s. “Both Sulaiman and I had been planning to recreate the old melodies of the golden era of music, for over four years now,” reveals Salim Merchant. “And then recently we were approached with a similar idea, and that was it! We immediately agreed on it and took it further.” The brothers are currently in the stage of selecting the songs, that they would want to recreate in a contemporary manner, some of them being Chura Liya, Lag Ja Gale, Zindagi Ka Safar, etc. “We’re still at the stage where we are selecting the songs. There will be 25 songs — including our personal favourites. It’s our dream project to recreate and re-present the imcredible melodies by RD Burman, SD Burman, Shankar Jaikishan and other geniuses of that era,” explains Salim. The final record, which is scheduled to be finished by October this year, will be a fashionable drums-guitar version of these classics, still incorporating the original orchestral style —which will be recreated by the group of 28 instrumentalists, eight vocalists and the chorus. “I see it as a record which will be liked by the youth, and will retain the authentic orchestral flavour of the original songs, though we’ll be reproducing them completely, and infusing them with high energy!,” says Salim. The duo — that’s been associated with some big Bollywood chartbusters like Ainvayi Ainvayi, Chak De, and Fashion among many others — is looking forward to this project, and have grand plans to take it further. “We will be doing live shows and tours. The venues too are going to be some historical monuments like the Taj Mahal (Agra), the Lal Qila (Delhi), and of course the Gateway of India in Mumbai. Next we’ll take it to London and beyond.”