Laal Singh Chaddha: ‘Over 150 people involved in making the score’, says composer Tanuj Tiku

The crew members of Aamir Khan’s ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, who stayed for two weeks at his Panchgani home, are set to tell a tale of “the extraordinary journey of an ordinary man”.

The brief given to score composer Tanuj Tiku was simple. “It was a slice-of-life film. Aamir sir likes Panchgani, which is why we worked there with a bunch of musicians. We played live, jammed together, and created the thematic music there. Within two weeks, all the thematic material and character motifs were readied,” says Tiku, further crediting Aamir Khan and the director Advait Chandan for cultivating an environment of creativity to a leading daily.

“The culture at [Aamir’s production house], and Advait’s relationship with him, is noteworthy. There is always a plan in place, but the process is organic. We watched the film, and immediately decided to jump into the score composition. My team and I began to ideate, and we [primarily used] the violin, piano, and guitar. We’d perform the themes to him live, and the first few days were simply spent in sampling these [chunks], listening to music and creating different colour palettes for different characters and themes, based on the brief.”

Tiku was certain that he wanted orchestral influences to be apparent in the score in keeping with its theme. He admits that generating a score of over 19 minutes posed a set of challenges, especially since it had to be recorded live. “But the story is beautiful, and we wanted the score to complement it. The harmonic language, and the simplicity of the character is at the film’s core. There are musical layers that help narrate the story. Over 150 people have worked on the score, including 75 musicians from the orchestra. The music for the trailer was recorded in Budapest.”

‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, produced by Aamir Khan Productions, Kiran Rao, and Viacom18 Studios, also stars Kareena Kapoor Khan, Mona Singh, and Chaitanya Akkineni.