Music sans frontieres

At the recently held MTV Immies a joke was doing the rounds. "The Indian ground has surrendered to Pakistan," someone remarked backstage, as Pakistani pop band Jal performed their chartbuster song "Woh lamhe".

Meanwhile, Ali Zafar, another Pakistani singer was gathering applause as he came on stage to host the same show. This story may sound like an old song but what's interesting is the rising number of Pakistani artistes getting launched in India.

"There's no dearth of female singers in the Indian music industry, but we need more voices in the male singers' category," says music director Ehsaan Noorani.

According to him, Pakistani artistes are helping to fill that void. Noorani admits he and his music partners Loy Mendonsa and Shankar Mahadevan are in talks with a popular Pakistani singer for a big-budget film but refuses to divulge details. "My favourites are Strings and Fuzon, but the band Jal needs to watch out."

Both Strings and Fuzon have created a niche market for themselves and, since 2004, these bands have been grabbing most of the college shows, topping the charts with their albums and, more recently, getting wooed by filmmakers in India.

While Strings finished recording with John Abraham and Sanjay Dutt for the title track of Zinda, Raahat Fateh Ali Khan recorded his vocals for "Jiya dhadak", an absolutely stunning song featured in the film Kalyug.

The song topped the charts within two weeks of its release and on most radio channels was the bestselling album. "We're selling nearly 15-20 copies of the album every day," says a spokesperson of Music World. Meanwhile, at House of Records, A & R, Sajid Khan admits, "We have Pakistani artistes Mahmood Khan and Shujaat Khan under our label and are getting ready to launch another artist from the neighbouring country."

Indian film and television awards too are taking note of this trend and tribe. So Atif has been nominated in most of the Best Male Playback Singer categories along with Indian playback singers Udit Narayan and Sonu Nigam, while Apsara Awards, constituted by the Film and TV Producers Guild of India and to be held in mid-January, has announced a slew of nominations for Pakistani artistes in a similar category.

"India is a growing market for us and we can't ignore it," feels Zafar, who launched his album Rangeen last year in India. It sold 4 million copies in Pakistan but Zafar admits that the number of units sold in India didn't swell because pirated CDs and cassettes had already made their entry into the music mart way before the album's launch.

Zafar's album got a whopping response and he clarifies, "I gave the company my finished product." His stint in India has been a roller-coaster ride with minor pitfalls too. Probe him a little and he complains, "My song was copied in the film Aashiq Banaya Aapne and I wasn't even acknowledged." He was in Pakistan when his brother made him listen to the remixed version on the Net.

Zafar feels it's a problem plaguing most artistes in India. "We as artistes can't get into legal wrangles if we want to survive in the market that we need to explore," he cautions. Right now, he's happy about being approached by "five Bollywood directors and music directors for playback singing". There's even an album on the cards, the songs of which he'll get legally registered to avoid "copy cats".

But what makes India such an important market for these artistes from across the border? "There's immense talent but by no means is the entertainment industry flourishing in Pakistan," feels music director Shekhar Dadlani, citing the reason why these artistes look at India. Musician Faizal Kapadia from the band Strings agrees, "I can't speak for others, but the pop market in Pakistan is very small "" though very, very original."

Strings has been growing in popularity in the Indian music scenario what with collaborations with other Indi-pop artistes and now getting noticed in films too.

While most artistes think of this trade as a feel-good scenario, there are some who feel that these artistes are getting unnecessary publicity in India. Says Palash Sen of Euphoria, "We've performed with Junoon, Strings and Raahat Ali in recent years and it's always a pleasure to jam with them." But he doesn't hesitate to add, "We should also be encouraged to perform in Pakistan."

According to a source, "Pakistani artistes can't avoid the Indian music industry because it's here that they reach out to South-east Asia and the rest of the international market. As long as they're spending money, who're we to stop them from releasing their music." Zafar feels that musicians from his country have an edge in terms of both music and lyrical content that is offered to the listener.

"I guess, our music is a much-needed break from the remix scenario that's ruling in the Indian music industry today." He could be right. That explains why a majority of college shows and corporates have called them despite the whopping price tags that they quote, ranging anywhere between Rs 1.5-6 lakh.

"It's music diplomacy," says Savio D'Souza who adds, "Going by the response to music shows like MTV Immies, we plan to organise shows where both Indian and Pakistani artistes can increasingly perform on the same platform." Maybe that's why anywhere from 6-10 Pakistani artistes will be launched by different music companies in 2006.

For some acts like Junoon, the party in India has come to an end "" "they have no takers anymore," says a source "" but for a majority of artistes from across the border, the melody has just begun.