‘Bollywood is accommodative of non-Indian talent’

Mikey McCleary,
who recently
composed a song in Farhan Akhtar-Vidya Balan starrer Shaadi Ke Side-Effects, feels the Hindi film industry accommodates talent from outside.
Mikey’s first composed a Hindi song was for Bejoy Nambiar’s movie Shaitan titled Khoya Khoya Chand. Originally from New Zealand, Mikey commenced his career in Bollywood collaborating with singer Lucky Ali.
“Bollywood does give space to talent. I enjoy this space in Bollywood at this point where there are lot of experimentations, in terms of singing and compositions, happening,” Mikey told.
The musician, however, admits that people from outside have to struggle a bit harder. “Language is the biggest challenge I have faced and still facing here. I don’t understand Hindi. But I am trying to learn the language as much as I can,” said the composer, who has worked and lived in London. “I think I’m lucky to have got the chance to work on good projects at the onset of my career in Bollywood. I have worked with Ali in his first three albums. This has helped me learn about Bollywood and India much more. Also, my family has connection with India,” he said. The composer feels before composing music for Indian audience it is important to know how Bollywood works. “I have to always keep this in mind that I’m making music for Indian ears,” he said.
Mikey, who composed Ahista Ahista sung by Farhan Akhtar in the movie ‘Shaadi Ke Side-effects’, said Farhan has a unique voice. “When he heard my composition, he (Farhan) liked it. He is a very relaxed guy. And he has a unique voice. I worked hard on him but I work hard on all my singers to push them to their best.” Having worked with television ad campaigns including Vodafone, Coca Cola, Levi and other top brands, Mikey said he is trying to balance between advertising and film music compositions. “I am balancing lot of ad campaigns and Bollywood music compositions. I think it is good to do many things. Nowadays, even actors are singing. Everybody should work in diverse areas,” he said. Taking about his background compositions, Mikey said his favourite is the background score he gave for ‘Dibakar Banerjee’s 2012 political thriller ‘Shanghai’. “‘Shanghai’ is my favourite so far because it was very challenging and it was quite a tough sound track,” he said. Talking about his current projects, Mikey said he is working with Balaji productions on their three new movies namely ‘Pizza’,’Fattack’, ‘Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Hogayi’. (PTI)