Swanand Kirkire: ‘OTT platforms didn’t perceive the facility of music’
There are artistes who adapt to codecs. After which there are those that merely comply with their intuition. Lyricist and composer Swanand Kirkire belongs to the second class. Purely going by his intuition, he took the leap and turned creator with the brand new collection, Bandwaale. However to him, the position marks his return to one thing foundational. “I come from theatre. I’ve written authentic performs. Lyrics occurred [later],” he mentioned, after we obtained on a name.
Starring Kirkire, Zahan Kapoor, and Shalini Pandey, Bandwaale revolves round three small-town artistes who come collectively to type an unlikely band. Music, naturally, is the backbone of the Prime Video collection. That’s exactly the place Kirkire believes streaming platforms initially faltered. “I feel OTT platforms initially didn’t totally perceive the facility of music in Indian storytelling,” mentioned the artiste, who has additionally served as actor, lyricist, singer, and composer on the present.
Swanand Kirkire (excessive proper) in ‘Bandwaale’
In sharp distinction stands the Hindi movie ecosystem, the place songs are central to tales. “In cinema, if you make a movie with 5 good songs, they turn out to be the advertising engine. If the songs work, the movie advantages. In lots of early internet collection, songs had been both not marketed correctly or not launched independently. So that they didn’t journey,” he famous.
What OTT collection must push music, he mentioned, is a system that enables songs to succeed in listeners outdoors of the episodes. He pointed to the movies’ construction of releasing music. “Songs would launch earlier than the movie. They’d play on radio, tv, all over the place. There was a construction. With OTT, that construction remains to be evolving. Music should stay outdoors a present too. Solely then will it have repeat worth.”
They obtained it proper
Kirkire famous that ‘Bandish Bandits’ and ‘Mismatched’ had been the uncommon collection that embraced music of their storytelling. “The songs had been launched individually and promoted,” he mentioned.
