‘Munni badnaam hui…’ established my career as solo composer: Lalit Pandit

Yes, he came over with (Dabangg director) Abhinav Kashyap. I didn’t know that they were working on Dabangg then. We had a long session and then Arbaaz told me that they were already working on a film and wanted an item number. He said we have only one situation left and also said we need a crackerjack of a song to make this music a hit. He had told me overall the music in Dabangg  was soft and that he needed a big dhamaka song.

Here is where I sang out Munni badnaam hui to both of them. They instantly loved the song as was expected and we had a great time listening to the song again and again. Both Arbaaz and Abhinav were sure that this was a big hit song for the film.

I selected a new voice Mamta Sharma and the producers were kind enough to go with my suggestion and intuition. I must tell you that I worked for nearly 40 days in the production of the song till I finalized it. Since I was aware this could help. Considering my situation as a solo composer after the split with my brother, I didn’t want to leave any stone unturned! I wanted a cracker of a track. Since I am quite well versed with the technical aspects of recording that extra knowledge helped. This technical know-how was also the USP of the music that I did with Jatin. I was good at recording and arranging music.

The song became the song of the year in that particular year! Munni badnaam swept all the awards. Sadly, no music scored by the Jatin-Lalit team ever won any award.  The awards for Munni badnam were very special for me. I won an award handed over to me by (lyricist) Sameer Anjaan for best lyrics!! Also, the song won the best song recorded that year!!This was a very happy moment for me winning these awards along with the best music. Song of the year, best item song...and many other different categories. I’d say the song Munni badnaam  benefited  the overall score of Dabangg .

Since then, I have done 20 independent films and am working on more films. I have been lucky to have films with me always since Munni badnaam and am constantly doing music scores. These are difficult times for music as producers want one or two songs by each composer with multiple music directors scoring for a film. It’s sad. But luckily, I have done many films as a solo composer. I have got many offers to do a single item song for a film score, which I have had to let go because I am not happy doing that.

Recently I have decided to venture into independent music and produce some non-film music. I want to compose music that my heart tells me is nice and music that I know film producers and directors won’t take. I am excited and happy to venture into this new phase in my music composition which will give me creative freedom.