Pritam Chakraborty

Pritam Chakraborty
Pritam at the 5th Global Indian Music Academy Awards 2015.
Born	14 June 1971 (1971-06-14)[1] Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Residence	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Alma mater	Film and Television Institute of India
Occupation	Composer Music Director Singer Record Producer Instrumentalist
Religion	Hinduism
Spouse(s)	Smita Chakraborty
Parent(s)	Prabodh Chakraborty Anuradha Chakraborty
Musical career
Genres	Film scores, Pop, Sufi, Rock, classical
Instruments	Guitar,[2] Vocals[3]
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Tips Industries Limited, Sony Music, Eros International, T-Series
Associated acts	Chandrabindoo, Metro

Pritam Chakraborty (born June 14, 1971) better known by the mononym Pritam is a noted Indian music director, composer, singer, instrumentalist and record producer for Bollywood films. In a career spanning nearly one and a half decades, Pritam has composed music for more than a hundred Bollywood movies, covering many genres and becoming one of the most versatile music composers in India. He has won 2 Filmfare Awards, 4 Zee Cine Awards, 3 Star Screen Awards and 3 IIFA Awards among many others.

Pritam's composing career started in Bollywood, when he was signed for the film Tere Liye along with his friend Jeet Gannguli, The duo next composed music for the 2002 Yash Raj Films production Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai. The music of the movie was a huge success and most of its songs went on to become chartbusters. After the duo parted ways, Pritam composed music for the second film of Sanjay Gadhvi, Dhoom, which received overwhelming response. The music of the movie topped the charts rendering huge fame to Pritam.

Early Life

Pritam was born to Smita Chakraborty and Prabodh Chakraborty. His father, who was an insurance officer, used to teach light music on western instruments to young kids for a nominal fee, till an accident forced him to quit his job and concentrate on the meager earnings from his music school. Pritam gained his early training in music from his father and learned to play the guitar while he was still in school.

After completing his schooling at St. James' School and college education at Presidency College, he went to a music school. Pritam joined a Bangla band, Chandrabindoo. Before that he formed another band with his Presidency batchmates, called "Jotugriher Pakhi". They even have a cassette released to their credit at that time. In January 1993, Pritam joined the Film and Television Institute in Pune to undertake a course in sound recording and sound engineering. During this time, he was offered a chance to compose background music for a film by Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Gaal. He also learned African music from musicologist Kedar Avati.^[4]

Career

Pro Bollywood Career

After completing his sound engineering course from FTII Pune, Pritam came to Mumbai and he started composting ad jingles and became friendly with a number of other young struggles such as: Shantanu Moitra, Rajkumar Hirani, Sanjay Gadhvi and Jeet Gannguli. That time Pritam composed renowned jingles for brands like Santro, Emami, Head and Shoulders and also composed title tracks for TV Serials Such as: Astiva, Kavyanjali, Yeh Meri lifehain, Remix Kashmir, Mili, and Dil Kya Kare.^[5]

Early Bollywood Career (with Jeet Gannguli)

About his relationship with Jeet, Pritam Said, “I was living in a humble suburb, and in the same building lived Jeet (Gannguly), who was also struggling. We used to jam in our spare time and decided to come together for films, though I always did my ad films and serials solo.” Pritam got his first break when Sanjay Gadhvi was signed on to direct Tere Liye and he, in turn, signed on his friends Jeet and Pritam as music composers. Though the music was well received, the film sank at the box office. However, in 2002 Yashraj Films signed Gadhvi up to direct Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai, for which the Jeet-Pritam duo once again composed the music. All the songs from that movie were chartbusters, and the duo had hit the big time. recalling that time, Pritam later said “Abbas Tyrewala was the writer and lyricist (of tere liye), and we were all newcomers. But the film did not work at the box-office. However, Gadhvi was soon signed by Yash Raj Films for Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai, and my song ‘Sharara’ became very popular. At that point of time, we could only get a small movie, Mudda - The Issue starring Arya Babbar. Jeet had taken ill, so when Hirani came and offered us Munna Bhai MBBS, we could not accept it,”. Soon after, over some misunderstanding, Jeet decided to split and the two partners went their separate ways.

Solo Career

Pritam had built a name for his compositions by finely blending Indian classical music with western influences. His compositions for Gadhvi’s second movie Dhoom were a runaway hit. The title-track of Dhoom in two versions – Hindi (by Sunidhi Chauhan) and English (by Tata Young) broke geographic barriers becoming popular in pubs in the UK, USA and the Far East and also won him a Zee Cine Award for Best Track of the Year. He received two nominations for Dhoom. He followed this up with compositions for films like Gangster & Dhoom 2. His Compositions for Anurag Basu's Life in a... Metro garnered him very positive reviews. He formed his own band called Metro with Suhail Kaul, Soham Chakraborty and Bangladeshi singer James for the movie. He won his second Zee Cine Award for Best Track of the Year for the song Mauja hi Mauja from Jab We Met by Imtiaz Ali. Jab We Met also won him his first Apsara Award for Best Music Director. He then went on to compose for two more films of Imtiaz Ali, Love Aaj Kal and Cocktail both of which were critically and commercially Sucessful and gave him a lot of Awards and Nominations. His Sufi songs for the 2010 movie, Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai were immensely popular with the masses and songs like "Pee loon" and "Tum Jo Aaye" from the movie were declared Chartbusters. In 2012, he scored music for Barfi! which won him two Filmfare Awards ^[6]. Barfi is considered to be one of the most Critically Acclaimed Soundtrack Album throughout His Career. By 2013, his list included Race 3, Murder 3, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, and Dhoom 3. He started the year 2014 with compositions for Yaariyan and Shaadi Ke Side Effects. He then took a break in 2014 and returned with three successful Albums in 2015, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Phantom and Dilwale for which he was nominated for the filmfare awards^[7].His upcoming films include White Lies, Jagga Jasoos, and Badtameez Dil.

On screen appearance

Songs and Movies

• Gangster (Music video for the song Bheegi Bheegi)
• Life in A... Metro (Guest appearance)

Television

Pritam mentored and judged Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009^[8] and was a judge for Chhote Ustaad on Zee TV. He was also a guest judge for the X factor and Zee Bangla SaReGaMaPa 2012-13.^[9] He also composed the track for Hrithik Roshan’s TV series Just Dance for Star TV which was sung by K.K.^[10] Pritam also appeared on the popular show MTV Unplugged (Season 5) on 13 February 2016 where he sang some of his career's best songs.<ref?"‘MTV Unplugged’ Season 5 Features Pritam Chakraborty, Jubin Nautiyal". 2015-12-14. Retrieved 2016-02-13. </ref>

Musical Style

Pritam has composed in a variety of genres including rock (Life in a Metro), Sufi (Once Upon Time in Mumbai) and even Ghazals (Barfi). His musical style is mainly characterized as a delicate fusion of Indian classical music with western influences.^[11] In an interview given to Stacey Yount for Bollyspice, Pritam said “I really do prefer doing rom-coms over action films.”^[12] Lyricist and Singer Amitabh Bhattacharya said about Pritam, "It is very challenging to work with Pritam. Right from the day he cracks the song, till the day the song goes out, he is constantly working, re-working, doing changes in the song, He keeps me on my toes and that is very exciting to me. We debate a lot regarding our songs and ultimately the result is always good, His spectrum as an artist is vast. It is always good to work with composers who have range,"^[13]. Famous Singer Kavita Seth said "Pritam’s melody is very strong. You hear it once and it will stay with you, it is addictive.”^[14]

Awards and Nominations

Asia Pacific Screen Awards Winner

• 2012 Barfi- Won Asia Pacific Screen Awards for Best Music^[15]

Asian Film Awards Winner

• 2012 Barfi - Won Asian Film Awards for Best Music^[16]

Filmfare Awards

Winner

• 2013 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award - Barfi! (2012 film)^{[17] [18]}
• 2013 - Filmfare Award for Best Background Score - Barfi! (2012 film)^{[19] [20]}

Nominations

• 2005 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award — Dhoom (2004)
• 2007 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award — Dhoom:2 (2006)
• 2008 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award — Life in a Metro (2007)
• 2008 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award — Jab We Met (2007)
• 2009 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award — Race (2008)
• 2010 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award — Love Aaj Kal (2009)
• 2010 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award — Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009)
• 2011 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award — Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010)
• 2013 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award — Cocktail (2012)
• 2014 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award — Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (2013)
• 2016 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award — Dilwale (2016) ^[21]

Zee Cine Awards

Winner

• 2014 - Zee Cine Award Best Background Music - Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (2013)
• 2013 - Zee Cine Award for Best Music Director - Cocktail (2012)
• 2005 - Zee Cine Award for Best Track of the Year - Dhoom ( Dhoom Machale )
• 2008 - Zee Cine Award for Best Track of the Year - Jab We Met (Mauja Hi Mauja)

Star Screen Awards

Winner

• 2014 - Star Screen Award for Best Music Director - Barfi!
• 2013 - Star Screen Award for Best Music Director — Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani
• 2011 - Most Popular Music — Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai

International Indian Film Academy Awards

Winner

• 2013 - IIFA Award for Best Music Director - Barfi!
• 2013 - IIFA Award for Best Background Score - Barfi!
• 2013 - IIFA Award for Best Music Director — Love Aajkal (2009)

Other

• Won RMIM Puruskaar Album of the Year[1]
• Won RMIM Puruskaar for Song of the Year for Phir Le Aayaa Dil
• Won RMIM Puruskaar for Best Sung Songs (Solo) for Phir Le Aayaa Dil
• Won RMIM Puruskaar for Best Sung Songs (Duet) for Aashiyaan
• Got Satish Kalra Sammaan in RMIM Puruskaar
• Nominated Album of the Year in Mirchi Music Awards for Barfi
• Nominated Music Composer of the Year in Mirchi Music Awards for Barfi
• Nominated Technical Background score of the year in Mirchi Music Awards for Barfi
• Nominated for Song of the Year for 'Tum Hi Ho Bandhu' at Mirchi Music Awards for Cocktail
• Nominated Album of the Year at Mirchi Music Awards for Cocktail
• Nominated Music Composer of the Year in Mirchi Music Awards for Cocktail
• Won People's Choice Awards India for Favorite Movie Album of the Year (Cocktail)
• Won U.K. Bollywood Cosmpolitan Award for Best Music Album ( Cocktail )
• Won the Best Music Director's award
• Nominated for Best Music award in 8th Apsara Awards
• Won GIMA Hottest Song of the Year for Daaru Desi
• Won GIMA Hottest Song of the Year for Daaru Desi
• Apsara Producers Guild Award 2010 Won Best Music Director award for Love Aaj Kal
• Radio Mirchi 2009 Won Composer of the Year Award for Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
• Big Star Award 2011 Won Best Music Director award for song Pee Loon from Once Upon A Time in Mumbai
• Global Indian Film and Television Honours award 2011 Won Special Music Director award for Once Upon A Time in Mumbai
• Mirchi Music Listeners Choice 2011 Won Album of The Year award for Once Upon A Time in Mumbai

Discography

Select Filmography

References

External links

• Pritam Chakraborty at the Internet Movie Database
• Pritam Chakraborty on Twitter
• Pritam Chakraborty on Facebook
• Pritam Chakraborty on Instagram