Azeem Dayani has been music supervisor for movies like Baar Baar Dekho, and featured Jasleen Royal and Prateek Kuhad on the song Kho gaye hum kahan

While the directors have played a dual role behind the scenes for The Family Man, most shows and films to release on OTT platforms now have exclusive music supervisors to curate the OST. Gone are the days when one music director dictated an entire album. You could say it all started with singer/songwriter Ankur Tewari, who was music supervisor for the 2019 Zoya Akhtar film Gully Boy. Tiwari says that it’s been happening in the West for a while, and it was high time India caught up. “It’s about having one more option. I think now, especially when the music industry is on a curve—music is being produced at home, many people own their music—something like this was needed. It was happening in small ways anyway. For example, back in 2011, director Bejoy Nambiar got a song by composer Mickey Mcleary to feature in his film, Shaitan. It’s more formal and legitimate now.”

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Tewari thinks the trend has worked well to introduce indie talent to a new audience, one that doesn’t care about language. “The old barriers are now gone. We are transcending boundaries to look for music,” says Tewari, who is busy curating music for Amazon Prime show Made in Heaven’s second season starring Shobhita Dhulipala. In fact, it was Tewari who had introduced producer and musician Mukul Deora to Divine’s American manager, and that’s how the Mumbai rapper featured in Deora’s 2021 Netflix film, The White Tiger. “We had Divine, and we had a Punjabi MC song, which suited the ethos of the film. In America, this is the usual practice. And I am ecstatic that it’s happening in India. I think now, non-Bollywood artistes will get a chance to showcase their work; it’s opening up different spaces to them. The music industry is maturing.”

Ankur Tewari

Bombay’s export to LA, singer-songwriter Natania Lalwani will agree with Deora. The young artist has featured prominently on the OST for Amazon Prime’s Four More Shots Please!, curating and writing for it with Mikey Mcleary, who helmed the project. “We would watch the episodes and then write each song for a particular scene. This way, you truly become the character and are able to see what they’re going through,” says Lalwani, who was excited about adding different voices to the OST. “I remember finding Zoe Siddarth. When I heard her voice, I knew she would be perfect for a song I had written. We had her come in to demo it and she ended up singing a couple of songs for the season.” Another indie artist, rapper D’Evil, who has songs in the upcoming Farhan Akhtar-starrer Toofan, says, “It’s amazing to get this kind of supervision when an indie talent crosses over. We need this guidance.”

Mukul Deora, D’evil and Natania Lalwani

But it’s not just OTTs that are changing the game. Even mainstream production houses like Dharma are keen to give new talent a chance. Azeem Dayani, who is now a well-known music supervisor for Karan Johar’s production house, started in the film marketing team. “After work, I used to hang around and unwind by listening to music. Karan sir [Johar] was always around, and once he asked me to find some new music for Kapoor and Sons. That’s how I got to doing this,” says Dayani, who met indie songwriter Arko Pravo Mukherjee at that time, who pitched him Dariya, a song that became a hit in 2016’s Baar Baar Dekho. “We did a lot of new stuff—we got Amaal Mallik to rework Kar gayi chul then, more recently we also got Bpraak to sing Teri mitti for Kesari, which fetched him a National Award this year.” Dayani feels there hasn’t been a better time for indie musicians. “As music supervisors grow, there is more chance that indie talent will be featured in mainstream shows and movies. And that’s a win-win.”