My cherished associations

Jagjit Singh: : My career in rhythm programming opened with his blessings. I have done percussion programming for many of his Ghazal albums over the years.

R. D. Burman: This dream relationship began with my assignment for the music of "Gang", a movie by Mr. Mazhar Khan. In the follow through, under his music direction, I programmed rhythm and played live Octapads with a huge orchestra for all his Hindi, Bengali and South Indian films, Bengali Puja songs and original background scores, till his last film "1942, A Love Story". Besides, I earned the enviable fortune of accompanying him as a sound engineer for his live shows across the globe.

Laxmikant-Pyarelal: Starting from the year 1993, I have done rhythm programming and played live Octapads for them in more than fifty songs, recorded at the legendary Meboob Studios. The recent one was from the hit movie "Om Shanti Om", where he had arranged music for the music duo Vishal-Shekhar.

Vishal Bharadwaj: I was a part of his core team for almost a decade as a rhythm arranger and programmer, right from his first film "Maachis" till "Makadi" and in his other non-filmi music projects as well, including the renowned album "Boodhe Pahadon Pe" written by Mr. Gulzar and sung by Suresh Wadkar.

Nadeem Shravan: I was a key member in their rhythm section and played live Octapads in over three hundred songs for more than fifty films, most of them chartbusters and popular even today, right from "Pyar Ka Saya" [1991] through "Raja Hindustani" [1996].

Rajesh Roshan: I had a consistent association with him as the rhythm programmer for about 10 years.

Himesh Reshamiya: I have worked as one of his rhythm programmers, starting from the songs of his first movie "Pyar Kiya Toh Darna Kya"and continued for many films. The recent work was original background score of the movie "Khiladi 786".

Viju Shah: Though, as a rhythm musician, my involvement with him was only for a few songs and an original background score for his film "Pyar, Ishq and Mohabbat", I got the coveted opportunity to tour the world with him as a sound engineer for his live shows of Kalyanji- Anandji Nite fame, featuring Amithabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Sridevi, Boney Kapoor etc.

Naresh Sharma: For about fifteen years after my career began, I worked on electronic rhythm for many of his hit original movie background scores.

Surinder Sodhi: Continuously for over one and a half decades, I did tons of rhythm programming for the songs and original movie background scores under his music direction and arrangement.

Ashok Patki: I am privileged to have played and programmed under his baton for countless hit Marathi film songs, TV serials, stage drama musical scores and music albums, counting the one written by poet Mr.Ramesh Tendulkar, father of the master cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

Rahul Ranade: I was associated with him for electronic rhythm in many of his original background scores for Hindi films made by Mahesh Manjrekar and in Marathi theatre music as well.

Nikhil Vinay: Since the early days of my career till now, I have done many music albums of playback singers like Sonu Nigam, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Udit Narayan, Agam Kumar Nigam, Anuradha Paudwal etc. and many songs for the movies under their music direction.

Jaidev Kumar: Rhythm programming for many of his hit Punjabi movies and music albums, rendered by Harbhan Singh, Sardool Sikandar, Jassi etc. and released by T-series, is to my credit.

Anjan Biswas: For nearly last ten years, most of my rhythm programming, sound recording and Dolby premix work for the original background scores of Punjabi films has been done under his baton.

In addition to the luminaries mentioned here, I have done electronic rhythm tracks for numerous songs by Bappi Lahiri, Usha Khanna, Ravindra Jain, Sarang Dev, Sanjoy Chowdhury and many others.

Apart from these, I am fortunate to have played for many other great music composers of India too, where my involvement with them may not been for long but is a treasured one and a great learning treat in itself.

MY MILESTONE... MY MARKERS...

Over the years of my musical journey, as an Electronic Rhythm Programmer and a Live Octapad Player, I have had the distinction of working for the following music directors:

Over the years of my musical journey, as an Electronic Rhythm Programmer and a Live Octapad Player, I have had the distinction of working for the following arrangers: