Interview with Ehsaan Noorani — Exclusive

Dinner with Ehsaan Noorani

A dream come true for some of us living on the other side of the globe. Ehsaan was in the US on vacation and had gone skydiving that day. There was a dinner in the evening at our friend's home, and Ehsaan was expected to be there.

We have been fans of modern Hindi film music and were excited to meet one of the men who reshaped it.

You will notice in the video how at ease he was while we were peppering him with questions. Since it's a casual dinner and not a formal interview, please excuse the background noise — there is a lot of it, from kids and dinner-table chatter.

Ehsaan talked about his early days and how he got hooked on music. He even talked about being told by the science department to try something simpler, since he got "..half out of 100.."

Thank God for that!

Just imagine if Ehsaan had chosen to be an architect like the rest of his family — and then imagine Bollywood without the music of Dil Chahta Hai, Kal Ho Na Ho, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, Don, Taare Zameen Par, Rock On!!, My Name Is Khan and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, just to name a few.

Did you know that in the early days, he was not enamored with Bollywood music of the 90s? He talked about when the opportunity came up to compose for Dus — how the three of them (Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy) got together to do something different. He also chuckled at the fact that their song "Main Aayee Hoon U.P. Bihar Lootne" in Shool (1999) became a trendsetter.

We were curious why Ehsaan still composes TV ad jingles. He explained why composing jingles is often tougher than creating film songs.

We asked him for tips for parents trying to raise the next Ehsaan — and he had some great advice for youngsters, and more importantly, for their parents.

We were impressed with the cool attitude of Ehsaan. He wears his celebrity status with ease and has absolutely zero hangups. A truly cool individual and a very inspirational human being.

We debated about putting up the video — there is a lot of noise from screaming kids and people chatting around the dinner table. But life is not perfect. There is noise everywhere; you have to train your ears to listen to what is important. So the unedited video is now uploaded. We loved our time with Ehsaan, and maybe through this video you will get to relive some of those moments.

Watch the interview with Ehsaan Noorani:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4-Kf0qL5Ws