Popular Bengali singer Anupam now wants to be a director

Highlights

• Popular singer and song-writer Anupam Roy, who broke fresh ground in Bengali film music with his lyrics and compositions, now wants to graduate to filmmaking, though music will remain his first love.
• The singer of Amake Amar Moto Thakte Dao (Let Me Stay As I Like) from the hit film Autograph, which is still ruling the radio waves, has in fact already prepared a script, albeit roughly.
• "I wish to make a film one day for sure. It will be an urban tale with twists. I have a rough script which needs to be brushed up once things fall into place," Anupam told PTI.
• Meanwhile, the singer, a former techie working for a Bangalore firm, has composed music for a thriller Baishe Srabon - directed by award-winning filmmaker Srijit Mukherjee who also directed Autograph - and the movie's songs are fast rising up the charts.
• Prior to that, Anupam also composed music for another hit Bengali film Chalo Paltai.
• Asked how his songs touched a chord in his audience, mainly teenagers, Anupam said the reason perhaps lay in the ability of the lyrics to 'connect'.
• "My lyrics are all drawn from commonplace experience, inspiration from our college-day icons like (Kabir) Suman, Nachiketa and definitely Rabindra Sangeet (Tagore's songs)," he said.
• Referring to the tracks of Autograph and Baishe Srabon, the singer recalled how the lyrics were composed years back during his stay in Bangalore.
• "Srijit (director of both films) and I used to meet after a hard day's work in those days and as I crooned the numbers Srijit was the first person to comment in the positive."
• He had then promised to incorporate some of these tracks if he came into film direction one day, Anupam said adding the "rest is history".
• And now, the duo are collaborating for Srijit's third film which will go on the floors next month.
• Affirming that his musical journey has just begun, Anupam comes back to talking about film direction.
• "While I feel that music helps in the progress of the narrative, which is a very Indian way of film-making, if I come into direction in future, that will not necessarily mean that I will also don the composer's hat or my film will have songs," Anupam said.
• An unabashed Kolkata lover, who has acted in the drama Feluda Ferot modelled on Satyajit Ray's fictional sleuth Feluda aka Pradosh Chandra Mitter as well as some plays in Hindi days back in Bangalore, Anupam have any plans to quit the boat even if success dries up after a few hits.
• His demo cassettes made during pre-Autograph days and apparently not finding favour with music companies are still lying in the cupboard, but Anupam cannot look back from here.