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When Dev's Chaamp and Jeet's Boss 2 clashed this Eid, sitting in Mumbai, one man was praying for the success of both. No wonder, Jeet Gannguli, the composer of the two big-ticket ventures, is the flavour of the season. In Kolkata for a week, he tells us about the insecurities that have crept into the music scene, the relationship he shares with Bengal's heroes and why competition holds no meaning for him. Excerpts:
Sitting in Mumbai, did you figure out which film did better at the box office - Chaamp or Boss 2? I am very poor in maths; it has always been like that. I only find out if the audience has liked or rejected a song. I don't have a fair idea about box-office collections. I forayed into Tollywood in 2004 and share a rapport with hall-owners since then. They would tell me jokingly, 'People are breaking chairs while dancing to your songs. You must pay for the damage'. Till 2009, I would ask them how the sales were. They used to tell me if the rains had put a spanner on the sales or if there was an upswing - that was it. Beyond that, I never probed. Be it Jeet, Dev or the other producers - I never asked for collection reports. Chaamp, I heard, is running well in plexes. And Boss 2 is going great guns in single screens. I am yet to watch the two films.
If two of your films release on the same day, is there a lot more pressure as one film might have a better album? On many occasions, two of my films have released on the same day. I am in the creative field and it is not possible to always gauge which song is good and what can be better. Composers create songs based on situations. Ultimately, what matters is the end product - how the actors are emoting, the picturisation. I am usually all nerves before a music release. I feel I am debuting with each film. So, yes, there's pressure. The song, Allah meherbaan, from Boss 2 created controversy in Bangladesh. Was it tough handling it? No one complained to...