Pritam formed a rock group for Anurag Basu's intriguing film Metro. Explains the composer, "The entire music score in Metro is heavily rock-oriented. I needed to form a rock band which would be an integral part of the narrative, besides performing the songs. I auditioned a number of new singers and musicians."
Pritam included? "With Anurag Basu, you can never say," he laughs uncomfortably. "Even in Gangster I had no intention of being part of the musical set-up on screen. But Anurag forced me to be in the song Bheegi bheegi. Likewise I ended up being part of my rock band in Metro."
Pritam didn't use tried and tested voices in Metro. "It couldn't be Sunidhi Chauhan and KK. It has to be voices never heard before. Metro isn't your conventional film music."
In fact Pritam isn't into conventional voices these days. In Dhoom 2 he used the voice of Vishal Dadlani, one-half of the composing duo Vishal-Shekhar.
"That was completely Aditya Chopra's idea. Also you must remember Vishal was a singer, in a rock band, before he became a composer. I personally wanted Jay Shawn to do the English version of the Dhoom song.
But once Vishal came in I was convinced he was the best man for the job. He never played the composer during the recording and obeyed my instructions completely."
The Dhoom 2 soundtrack was greeted with some amount of dismappointment. "I was prepared for that. Dhoom 1 came with no expectation. But Dhoom 2 comes with a baggage of expectations. I expected it to start in the charts at no.1 and I expected the worst criticism ever this time, and I got both. But I was confident once people saw the visuals they'd take to the songs."
Answering charges of plagiarism, Pritam says. "Yes there have been times when I've adapted from outside sources. Often I've been persuaded to so do by producers or directors. But I can't only blame others. I've also adapted songs on my own initiative. But the endeavour is to always make the adaptation different from and better than the original."
Then he chuckles, "I'm glad my music is under scrutiny. It means my music makes a difference. I work very hard on a so-called 'lift' to make it interesting. I add my own my own melody and sound to it. So the credit can't be taken entirely away from me. The origin of a tune is just a part of my job as a music director and an entertainer."
As for the internet watchdogs Pritam says, "They keep the creative process alive and progressive. As for my controversial hit songs, aren't they opening new avenues of business?"