Composing music for films is challenging task: Pandit Sharma

Santoor maestro Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, who has composed music for some memorable Hindi movies, has said film music is a challenging task.
He has composed music for several Hindi movies in collaboration with flute maestro Hariprasad Chaurasia, starting with Yash Chopra's 'Silsila' (1980).
They came to be known as the 'Shiv-Hari' music duo. Some of the movies they composed music for were 'Faasle' (1985), 'Chandni' (1989), 'Lamhe' (1991) and 'Darr' (1993).
"I remember when Yash Chopra asked me and Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia to compose music for 'Silsila', everyone thought he was taking a big risk by signing classical musicians. There is a difference between classical and film music. And it was a tremendous challenge to live upto (film music)," Sharma told reporters at an event here this evening.

"For composing film music one has to keep in mind the story, situation of characters, location and so on. On the other hand, classical music is mostly about Raag," he said.