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Reinvention is the key to our success

Shankar Mahadevan, whose trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is behind hits like 'Senorita' and 'Kajra Re', says reinvention is the key to their longevity. "We have given many compositions which later became the trend in the industry. When we compose music, we always try to bring some new flavour in it. Sometimes, we re-invent ourselves from our existing compositions and that gives us immense confidence to churn out hit music. It's always exciting to create something which is not done before," said Mahadevan. The composer trio started their Bollywood sojourn with Mukul Anand's unreleased film 'Dus' but their effort went unnoticed. They finally had their first hit with Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 'Mission Kashmir'. After that, they have composed music for over fifty soundtrack so far in several languages. "Before forming the group Ehsaan was doing jingles and Loy was writing for television. We started off our career with non-filmi music. Rock, pop and jazz in our concerts." With 'Kajra Re' (Bunty Aur Babli), they started the rage of item numbers and Mahadevan feels that item numbers will continue to rule Bollywood. "Film is all about entertainment and these item numbers are extension of entertainment in a film. They add spice to a film. They are an important part of a film and makes people happy," he said. The trio were in the Capital to perform Seagram's 100 Pipers Shankar Ehsaan Loy - four city live in concert, which ended here on April 1. They are currently busy composing music for Kamal Haasan's bilingual project 'Vishwaroopam'. Set in Tamil and Hindi, Mahadevan has infused Carnatic elements in the movie. "It's a very big project for us. As I have done many Tamil films in the past, I can understand Haasan. I have infused Carnatic classical music in my compositions. First time, there will be a thumri in Tamil. The whole song is choreographed by Birju maharaj and Kamal Haasan is performing it."