A R Rahman’s former music arranger recalls the start of his musical journey

Composer, music producer and A R Rahman’s former music arranger on the start of his musical journey in the ’90s
The picture was taken 18 years ago, when I was on one of my first jobs as a music producer. Mehnaz, standing second from left, was recording her second album after her first song Miss India became insanely famous. She is flanked by my dearest friends, Dominique, who is now my wife, and Asif Ali Beg, theatre artiste and lyricist for movies like Dhoom and Dhoom: 2.Seated next to me is Bhavdeep Jaipurwale, Mehnaz’s vocal teacher back then.
We were working on Sargam, a song from Mehnaz’s second album, for BMG Crescendo. I remember I had done all the programming arrangements for the song at home, on an XP 80 keyboard.
I do not remember who clicked this picture, but it was Asif who sent it to me with those words written on them. The studio in the picture was Smoke, owned by Ashutosh Phatak and Dhruv Ghanekar, who besides going on to become successful composers in their own right, are also partners and founders of Blue Frog. It had only been a year since I had gotten into music production. Dominique, Asif and I had a band called Three’s Company back then. Around the time of this photo, Dominique and I had just started dating each other. She was pretty well-established back then and sang at least two to three jingles a day. The others in the picture, too, were doing well in their own ways.
I used to bunk college to go for recording sessions. My focus was to keep moving ahead in the field without getting unnerved by others. But in retrospect, it was a period when all of us in this picture were trying to find our niche.
I look at Bhavdeep in the picture, and I cannot help but smile at the circle of life. Back then, I had just started off my career and was working with him. Today, his son Sudeep Jaipurwale has just started off his musical career and is working with me.
— As told to Deepa Ramakrishnan