Meet Indrajit Sengupta. He is not a professional singer, but a highly placed officer in Mumbai. His love for the great composer and poet Rabindra Nath Tagore had influenced him to sing his songs in Hindi for the first time ever. Recently, we had a chat with him regarding the album and the idea and people behind the album.

Q: Tell us something about your album.
A: My album is titled ‘Mere Mann Mein Dhadkan Mein' and it is an ode to the great singer and composer Rabindra Nath Tagore. It is a collection of his compositions, which are not popular outside the boundaries of Bengal. The album contains 10 songs sung by me.

Q: What was the thought behind the making of this album?
A: See Rabindra Nath Tagore's composition has not been given full credence all over the country. In Bengal his songs are famous but here outside the periphery of Bengal he his not well known. Many compositions of his have been picked up in Bollywood, without even giving the credit to him. I wanted the people to know him all over the country. So I thought that this would be the best way to get his compositions translated to Hindi and have songs re-composed.

Q: Tell us about your background.
A: I'm basically from Bengal and have now been transferred to Mumbai as the Additional Director General of Service Tax, which is a high post. Anyways, I'm not a professional singer, but singing is my hobby. Though I'm a trained classical singer.

Q: So have you sung earlier too?
A: Yes, when I was in Bengal. I have three albums in Bengali and have also sung for a few films. Three years back, there was an album of mine called Anando Dhara, which featured Rajesh Khana. It was a huge hit at that time, not because of me, but because of Rajesh Khanna, who had also come to release the album in Kolkata.

Q: Why did you choose Amitabh Bachchan for the voice over?
A: He was particularly my choice because we needed a personality like him to carry off the album on his shoulders and no one except Amitabh Bachchan could have done that.

Q: So what is his role exactly in the album?
A: His role would be to introduce Tagore at the very beginning and then before every song, he would be explaining the meaning of the song and my rendering follows.

Q: Who else has helped you with the album?
A: The translation of the songs to Hindi has been done by Javed Akhtar, Shaheen Iqbal and Rajesh Johuree. The producer and the music composer of the album is Tabun Sutradhar, who is associated with Subhash Ghai, and has given music for the latest movie Khanna and Iyer.

Q: Whose choice was Ashmit Patel and Rituparna Ghosh?
A: These two feature in the album and they were Tabun's choice. The album is currently seen in all music channels.

Q: How was the experience working with such great people?
A: It has been great experience so far. Especially with Amitabh Bachchan. He is such a sober and kind-hearted man.

Q: So can we expect more albums from you?
A: Yes, why not. But for now let us see what happens to this one. - (SAMPURN)