MUMBAI: Salim Merchant is one of the renowned names in the Bollywood industry. The music composer duo Salim-Sulaiman has gifted myriad beautiful songs to the film industry.

However, Salim Merchant does not find films exciting nowadays. He opened up about the same during an interview with a leading daily. 

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The musician said that the independent music scene has grown to the extent that it has started sounding like film music. He told Indian Express, “Our film music always wanted to sound independent. But now there’s a fine line because the independent music is sounding like film music and vice-versa. So there’s no demarcation between the two. They all sound the same.”  Salim, along with his elder brother Sulaiman Merchant, has been in the business for nearly three decades, having played a role in the evolution of Indian music. From a musician and a programmer to teaming up with industry greats like Laxmikant-Pyarelal and RD Burman, Salim feels fortunate to have worked with live musicians, and with international artistes such as Lady Gaga. He has also dabbled in electronic music and background scores.

He said, “Fortunately, the industry pushed us to different levels. Now we own our own label called Merchant Records, which not just releases new cinema music but from different artistes from across the country and different genres.” But despite embracing new age trends and techniques, Salim shared that gone are the days when serious effort was put into storytelling. “A decade ago, people made stories into films. These days there’s a lot of focus on setup. It’s like ‘let’s do a film with Deepika Padukone’. Idea should originate from a story. I don’t find films very exciting nowadays. I shouldn’t be saying it, but it’s the truth. That’s why music of the movies we worked on did very well. Dor wasn’t a big film, but the music did so well. ‘Yeh Honsla’ was recognised. Same with Iqbal, where ‘Aashayein’ stood out. There are a lot of movies where few songs are remembered. There was no social media at that time. It was a very organic phase of life. But I don’t want to complain because there’s a constant change everyone’s going through.”

What is your take on Salim Merchant’s views? Do you agree with him? Hit the comment section. 

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CREDIT:  INDIAN EXPRESS