KRIPA KRISHNAN
IN CONVERSATION WITH
ISHAAN CHHABRA
Ishaan Chhabra is a highly esteemed composer and producer for film / visual media whose work transcends borders from the east to the west . His unique proposition , or rather , unique sound is essentially an amalgamation of western harmonic structures and indian melodic sensibilities . He already has many feathers under his cap , one of which includes an Oscar nominated feature documentary called ‘ Writing With Fire ’. He frequently works with Academy Award-winning composer AR Rahman in addition to his work as an independent music composer . Till date , he has collaborated on around 30 odd projects with him . These include Million Dollar Arm , Dreamworks ’ The Hundred Foot Journey , Majid Majidi ’ s Muhammad : The Messenger of God , Imagine Entertainment ’ s Pelé : Birth of a Legend , Gurinder Chadha ’ s Viceroy ’ s House , and several Hindi and Tamil film projects including Highway , Mom , Kochadaiiyaan , OK Kanmani , Tamasha , and Mohenjo Daro . He has also scored more than 20 projects independently , which includes mainstream feature films , Netflix serieses , prestigious commercials and of course the aforementioned Academy-nominated documentary .
If I knew nothing about you or your work , how would you introduce yourself and what would be that one piece of work that you ’ d show me ?
He describes himself as a film score / composer and music producer who builds musical soundscape worlds for films . He has a very diverse portfolio with work spanning a myriad of genres incorporating a variety of technical elements . He believes that his work in Omreto , a 2017 thriller by Hansel Mehta and his work in Love Aaj Kal , an intense mainstream drama by Imtiaz Ali , really showcase his calibre and competency in the space . They truly reflect his musicality and understanding of the context . Although both films are dramatically different in terms of overall soundscape , he very proficiently draws parallels between the two . The score for both films is composed such that there is an emphasis on characterization . He had to really delve deep into the character psyche and communicate that level of depth through score in both films . Essentially the
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