Rediff Interview: Ehsaan, Loy, Farhaad (Instant Karma)

Ehsaan: Yeah! It's great fun. They're such gorgeous songs.

But they're other composers' property!

You know, I really think if R D Burman were alive, he would come to us and tell us, "Why don't you do my songs?" *laughs*. It's really sad the way RD died. I've heard the music company wanted some other composer for 1942: A Love Story. But Vinod Chopra insisted on RD.

Loy: I think RD would have approved of Instant Karma. Composers write music in different ways. When we wrote Jaane kyon log pyaar karte hai in Dil Chahta Hai, we did it one way. Others are most welcome to do it in another.

There are always variations to a song. It's a living, constantly mutating entity. So for me to do an RD song is an honour. Today we're fighting for a lot of things that he did. We're successful because RD paved the way for us.

Farhaad: We don't do just RD. We also do Kalyanji-Anandji, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, eh? Strangely we end up doing an RD song nine out of ten times. Would he approve of what we're doing? Any musician would take a version of his song as a compliment.

Because a version gives a new lease of life to the original. When we did Bahon mein chale aao, many mediapersons didn't know it was a song from the film Anamika.

Mozart would have died long ago if he weren't kept alive by musicians who followed. If RD Burman were alive, he would be collecting royalty.