While it’s common for films with a social message to hit home their point in a serious tone. Director Raj Singh Chaudhary and co-producers Sanjay Shetty of Opticus Inc along with Anant Roongta of Famous Studios decided to infuse a blend of indie and folk music for their film Shaadisthan that talks about gender dynamics and the societal politics around marriage. The film drives home the point using the road journey of a family with an indie band in a quirkily designed bus.
“I wanted to cast real musicians instead of actors,” says Raj, adding, “I didn’t want actors because musicians from indie bands have their own body language and their own way of interacting within their team and with the audience when they’re performing on stage. I had watched bands play. So, Ajay who plays the violin in the film has actually played the instrument professionally in a lot of different groups. The guy who plays the Tibetan is a real guitarist I know from my school in Darjeeling and he actually plays for bands in the US. Apurva Dogra has also been with bands before. So, we collected real musicians to form a band performing in the film. We kept them as they are in their real life. Kirti is the only one we had to work on. We kept her real and someone who looks like she is a musician from a band.”
As for the music of the film, Raj, Sanjay and Anant roped in Nakul Sharma, who has a partner with whom he operates a band. “Nakul and his partner are a two-member band and their work is incredible. They had never composed for a film, so we roped them in for the songs and background score. The only brief they had is what would they perform if they had the same situation as the band members in the film. They read the script and infused folk music with indie rhythms. It added a dash of freshness to the narrative,” says Raj.
Sanjay and Anant the producers further added I think the whole fact that the film involves around realisation of who you truely are and following your dreams and passion, doing things your own way. The music plays a very very important role in bringing this entire audio visual experience together. A massive respect for the composers, to the director Raj and Sanjay to identify that and figure out that it was the right call to cast the band members including kirti who has been training in classical music. The whole performance seems natural and that’s the beauty of the film.