The Score Magazine - Archive May 2015 issue! | Page 12

PRITAM
He has provided music for some of Bollywood’s biggest blockbusters in his career
and has composed music for more than 100 films in his career. He also recently
worked with Academy Award winning director Danis Tanovic's White Lies with
Emraan Hashmi as the main lead. Let’s not forget his work in the film ‘Barfi’,
which was India's official submission contending for Best Foreign Film category in
Oscars 2013. Pritam Chakraborty, otherwise known as Pritam was born in Kolkata,
West Bengal. Today, the forty-three year old, who hails from a musical family
(His father is a famous music teacher who runs a music school for children) is a
prolific Indian composer, singer, live performer and sound engineer.
Upon completion of his schooling at St. James’s School in Kolkata, Pritam decided to follow his passion and joined music
school. After forming a band with his Presidency batch mates, called "Jotugriher Pakhi", he soon after joined the Bangla
band, Chandrabindoo. In January 1993, Pritam pursued Sound engineering from FTII Pune and moved to Mumbai, the
land of Bollywood. It was during this period of time, he got into composing ad jingles and befriended a number of other
then young strugglers turned A-listers like Shantanu Moitra, Rajkumar Hirani, Sanjay Gadhvi and Jeet Ganguly. Some of
Pritam’s memorable jingles of this time consist of brands like Santro, Emami, Head & Shoulders as well as title tracks for
Television serials like Astitva, Kavyanjali, Yeh Meri Life Hain, Remix, Kashmir, Mili, Dil Kya Kare, Krishna Arjun, Dekho
Magar Pyaar Se, Kyun Hota Hai Pyaarand, and the list goes on. Pritam got his first break when Sanjay Gadhvi was signed
on to direct Tere Liye. Gadhvi, not forgetting his friends signed Jeet and Pritam as music composers for the film. Although
the music was well recieved, sadly the film tanked at the box office. Nevertheless, in 2002, Jeet and Pritam were signed
again for Yash Raj Films. This time it was for the film, ‘Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai’ again directed by Sanjay Gadhvi. The duo
composed one more film together, ‘Mudda- The Issue’ before separating ways and went onto composing solo.
As a solo composer, Pritam began with a bang with films like, Fun2shh...Dudes in the 10th Century, Agnipankh, Ankahee
etc. In 2004, Pritam composed the music for Sanjay Gadhvi's film, ‘Dhoom’, which was a runaway success with Dhoom
Machale topping the chart. ‘Dhoom Machale’ also top charted the UK Top Chart in 2004, a huge success for India. Dhoom’s
success continued with a string of hit songs like- ‘Halka Halka’ from Chocolate, Garam Masala, Gangster, Woh Lamhe and
Dhoom 2 which also top charted UK Top Chart in 2006. The 2007 film, Life in a... Metro directed by Anurag Basu, portrayed
Pritam in a different manner where he featured in the film as part of the Metro band.
Aside from films, Pritam has mentored and judged for Zee TV's, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009, Chhote Ustaad, X Factor,
Zee Bangla Saregamapa, and was also featured in the NDTV Greenathon. His live performances span all over India and
abroad, in cities like London, Dubai, Singapore, Lagos and Muscat. His recent show was Zee Bollywood Rockstar- Biggest
Musical Extravaganza of the year in UK where he performed at Wembley Stadium in April of 2014 with his team of singers,
musicians & sound engineers. He was recently one of the performers in opening ceremony of this year’s IPL. His most
recent composition for serials was for Hrithik Roshan's TV debut, Just Dance sung by Pritam’s all time favorite singer KK.
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