Music composer Shameer Tandon: Singers like Abhijeet Bhattacharya and Kumar Sanu tried to imitate Kishore Kumar but...'

Music composer Shameer Tandon is a true visionary and the creative force behind some of India’s most groundbreaking musical projects. Shameer is not just a composer; he’s the architect of musical movements, redefining what’s possible in the industry.

For SonyLIV, he’s currently leading a project which is a tribute to the legendary singer Kishore Kumar. Shameer has orchestrated a marvel where Kishore Kumar’s original voice is retained, with contemporary artists singing alongside the legend himself.

His musical finesse is evident in his collaborations with legends like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Manna Dey, and Jagjit Singh. Shameer’s personal journey is equally inspiring, having left a comfortable corporate job to pursue music, leading to three back-to-back National Award-winning feature films.

When asked about restoring Kishore Kumar’s vocals, Tandon revealed, " So fortunately nowadays, without using generative AI, without using the AI that uses knowledge illegitimately, just using a software like RX, I was able to isolate the voice of Kishore Kumar from the records that were printed five to six decades ago. And we had legitimate permissions and sanctions from all stakeholders, be it the music company that has all the comprehensive rights and in fact the blessings of the family, because Amit Kumar also is a part of this movement that we created.

So, we’ve used multiple software because in some cases, some software gave a better output of isolating the voice where I could cull out or scoop out the vocal frequency from a mixed track. And in some cases, some software did a better job in some cases, some software did a better job. (1:25) But all these have been there now for a couple of years, but as time passes, (1:30) these softwares are becoming more advanced.

On his creative compromises

I was very clear and so was my music label, Universal Music and its CEO, Devraj Sanyal and his group of other management people like Sanujit Bhujbal, Gaurav Chaturvedi that we will do this only if we swear that we will not disturb the sanctity (2:58) of the lyric composition and the original vocal. Hence, if you see, we have used the lyrics of Kishore Kumar’s song the way they are. We’ve used his voice the way it is, the same key and the same tempo of his voice and his same composition which was done by Rajesh Roshan. And we just get the younger singers who the newer generation of millennials and gen z’s are familiar with.

Talking about positioning these classics in India, Tandon had this to say- “So, the international artists will be tempted to hear these songs because nowhere in the world has this happened where a full album has been created using the voice of a deceased singer who left us more than five decades ago. So the people outside of the diaspora will also love to hear because Kishore Kumar has a unique voice, a voice that could not have ever been replicated.

The international collaborations

I have orchestrated before this- Enrique and Sunidhi Chauhan, Asha Bhosle with Brett Lee and Shaan with the band Blue on a song called One Love and some songs like Bure Bure, Say Na Say Na that found a part in the film Bluffmaster. So at that time when I was doing international collaborations, maybe I was the first person to pioneer that because earlier in the day there was never legitimate collaborations, there were only plagiarisms and now I brought in legitimacy by taking all the necessary approvals from all the stakeholders, be it the music label, be it the artist management and create a win-win and technology at that time of Skype and even email (7:39) with heavy files moving here.

Singers who imitated Kishore Kumar

Why don’t we have a singer like him? Like earlier, Kumar Sanu and Abhijit Bhattacharya were singing like him, they were imitating him, they were emulating him and we were calling it a tribute, which is also a great tribute in its own time but now when the younger generation, millennials, gen Z’s want to hear some original voice of Kishore or they all believe in the authentic stuff, we have given the younger girls the chance to sing along with him, sing with him and not just sing like him, it’s not a remix, it’s a reunion of the man in the heavens.