'It is unfair to ban Pakistani artistes'

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Musician Sachin Gupta, who debuted as a composer with "Dil Kabaddi", feels no political party has the right to "ban" Pakistani artistes from performing in India and says people should be free to choose the kind of music they want to hear.

"I don't think that any political party should dictate what people should listen. If people don't want performers from a particular country to be in India, then they should themselves be vocal about it," Gupta told IANS.

The Shiv Sena had last week declared that it would not allow any Pakistani artiste to work in Maharashtra in the aftermath of the Nov 26 Mumbai terror strikes.

Gupta is the person behind the soaring career of Pakistani singer Atif Aslam as he had compiled his album "Doorie", but the composer now feels that there are "too many cross-border artistes", who take away focus from Indian musicians.

"I feel there has been enough of cross border artistes and now it is time to encourage and promote Indian talent in our country," said Gupta, the in-house music composer for Tips Films Pvt Ltd.

He wants to concentrate on promoting Indian voices and said that Tips would soon launch two new Indian singers with the albums "Rooh" and "Ni9NE".

Gupta, a former member of Delhi's fusion band "Mrigya", has performed at over 600 concerts across countries like Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Britain.

However, he says that he has more creative freedom after joining Tips.

"Being a part of the band, I had to listen to other band members and so many times I couldn't do what I personally wanted. But with Tips I have the creative freedom to create the kind of music I like and I want," Gupta said.

The composer, who has compiled six sound tracks for "Dil Kabaddi", also debuted as a playback singer with the song "Ehsaan" in the film.

"I had to use this song for my private album, but when producer Shailesh Singh heard the song, he wanted it in his film. I decided to give my voice to it though I don't consider myself as a singer," said Gupta, who admits that he always aspired to be a part of the Hindi film industry.

As far as the music of "Dil Kabaddi" is concerned, the composer has blended myriad musical styles.

"When you are composing music for a film, you can't stick to one particular genre. Every scene demands a different kind of song. So it is imperative to experiment with the music that will match with the mood of the scene," he said.

Gupta's future projects include a yet to be titled film by Kumar Taurani that stars Vivek Oberoi.

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Dil Kabaddi