From Ballygunge to Bollywood

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Vocalist Saugat Upadhyay with guitarist Subhradeep Das

Their greatest weapon is the guitar. Their greatest bullet is the voice and their greatest conviction? Of course, music it is. They shoot songs with a vow to hit the bullseye and win loyal listeners in the process. The Ballygrunge boys know precisely how to make the pulse beat to their tunes.

And with all guns blazing, they are raring to go even further.
Having explored English music for a long time, the bandsters now wish to move towards the Hindi haven to try out their luck in mainstream Bollywood music. All set to create some ripples with their distinct style and sound of music in the forthcoming movie Prague, the musical-duo of Saugat Upadhyay and Subhradeep Das seems upbeat about its future prospects.
“We’ve been solely doing English music for about five years now. Earlier, we had ganged up to form an outfit called Weapon Shop and played at different academic campus fests and other live shows across the country. That was our first brush with fame. But at the back of my mind, I was always determined not to belt out any covers, despite coming into the limelight. So streaming away into another estuary was inevitable for the two of us,” shares the lead vocalist Saugat, who also insists that they have not really disintegrated from their English counterparts and do keep performing with the band occasionally.
The thirst for scoring original notes for a Hindi film album further prompted the buddies to fly off to Mumbai, where at a musician friend’s party, they bumped into Suresh Thomas, the owner of the popular Crescendo Music label. “Mr Thomas only gave us the tip-off on Prague and the rest as they say, is history. Appreciating our quality of music, he suggested that our kind of songs may find suitable takers in the production stable of Prague. So it was he who actually recommended us,” recalls Upadhyay. Following the reputed company CEO’s advice, the Kolkata-based guys met up with Ashish R. Shukla, the director of Prague, who found the band’s numbers blending just fine with the film’s music-sequence. Soon on board, the 20-somethings discovered themselves swinging alongside actors Chandan Roy Sanyal and Elena Kazan (of Agent Vinod fame) for a promo-song shoot of Prague at an open-air pavement in south Kolkata’s Alipore region.
Making a debut with the song called Chehera, the foot-tapping overture is a judicious mix of contemporary rock, grunge, synthpop and funk.
“As you are aware, we are just two to tango. Saugat is primarily the frontman and I am essentially a composer-guitarist. My role in Ballygrunge mostly involves penning the lyrics and composing songs, apart from playing the guitar live on stage. Plus, I also do the backing vocals whenever required. However having said that, both Upadhyay and I always co-ordinate as a concerted team and our joint efforts get involved in all departments raging from writing, composing to conceptualizing et al.” The young Turks aspire to dig into a goldmine of opportunities to score for diverse projects, be it films or TV, advertising or other dynamic media platforms with a fair amount of visibility,” says Das.
Is an album on the anvil? “We actually have a prolonged playlist, ready on record to cut an eight-track album. It’s just a matter of choosing the right time and space that comes along. We in fact got an offer to score for a film first, which given the current scenario is a much better option than launching an album and then carrying the onus of promoting it all by yourself,” notes Das.
Commenting on the trend of multiple composers pitching in on a single project in present-day Bollywood, Upadhyay says, “See, everybody wants to taste a little pie of the whole profitable cake. And if you’re adequately talented, you’ll automatically stand out with one solid creation of yours. For instance, composer Mithoon Sharma’s soulful track Tum Hi Ho from Aashiqui 2 is synonymous with the movie’s title, mood and ambience. Also I think, the genre of alternative rock or pop rock has hardly any space in commercial Hindi cinema music, barring a few bands that specialise on that front. In other words, it is fast fading out. So in order to trickle in a streak of soothing Sufi rock or alternative rock or a sonorous metallic sound, many popular bands like Roxen (Pakistani rock band from Lahore) or Strings (Pakistani pop rock band from Karachi) or Fuzön (alternative rock band from across the border) are roped in to do the honours. The greatest example of this aspect is the Bhatt camp which has tie-ups with lots of such unique grou-ps to boost its untapped regional sounds. Even homegrown outfits emanating a raw appeal are widely welcomed by many a production house to encourage new-age sound-n-beats.”
Good news is that talks are on for a Pooja Bhatt film under the Vishesh Films banner. So the future is really looking up for the Ballygrunge boys. Besides, a tentatively titled flick — John Day — with veteran star-actor Naseeruddin Shah in its lead cast is on the list of probable.
With the band’s rehearsal pad located in the Ballygunge area of the City of Joy and the grunge style that it fashions in its kitty of songs by far justifies its unconventional name.
Visibly ecstatic about the imminent release of Prague, an excited Upadhyay informs that the promos will shortly be on air. “We hope to touch a chord at the national level and we are not even quantifying the age-bracket of our target-audience,” says Upadhyay. Since the band promises to retrace a whiff of fixating aromas of the bygone decades, hence there’s an immense chance of getting the 40-plus generation as its rooted listeners.
While internationally, Pearl Jam, Metallica, Creed/ Alterbridge, Maroon5, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Guns ’N Roses, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel have influenced the band, closer home, Avial, guitar-virtuoso Amyt Dutta and Hip Pocket are among Ballygrunge’s inspirations.
Last, but not the least, as far as the band’s collaboration with other artistes or groups is concerned, Das affirms: “We’d like to collaborate with any known artiste who’s doing genuine, seminal stuff and gels well with our mindsets as musicians. I personally would love to collaborate with Avial, a Malayali alternate rock band that is truly unique in their repertoire. We’re staunch blind fans of the band! In a nutshell, we are basically open to a cache of collaborative projects as long as the end result is kick-ass with a capital K!”