Talented composer and singer Rangon Chatterjee recently made a huge mark in the music industry with his composition in Armaan Malik’s newly released single “Tootey Khaab”. The song has been appreciated widely and accepted by all age group. Rangon started off commercially when he composed “Phir Mulaaqat” for the film Cheat India starring “Emraan Hashmi”. The Kolkata Mail correspondent Priyanka Dutta caught up with the talented artist in an exclusive chat. Excerpts…

Tootey Khaab has been receiving good response from the audience. How did this song come about?!!

Rangon Chatterjee- First of all I would like to thank everyone for showering so much of love for our song. It inspires artists like us so much to come up with more good music.
Tootey Khaab was initiated by my co- composer and brother Kunaal Vermaa who also penned down the song. He came up and played me this hook line melody long back and we (Songster) decided to work on it in order to make it a full length song. Then at a birthday party Kunaal bhai played this hook line to Shivam Chanana who supervises all music for T-series. He liked the idea and we (Songster) started developing it. It was initially about to go to a film but as soon as Shivam played this to Armaan, we jammed together. Armaan decided to make it his single. Then we did various jam sessions together. We got musicians on board. It has been a year long journey for the whole team of Tootey Khaab to make it what we are listening today.

How was the experience of working with Armaan?

Rangon Chatterjee- As I always say, Armaan is one of the finest singers and musicians our country has. It is great to work with him. Not only he sings really well but his musical inputs for a song are just amazing. And moreover he is such a fun person to work with. It was an amazing experience throughout.

How did you begin your journey as a music composer?

Rangon Chatterjee- I was born in a family with lot of cultural influences. My dad has been a theatre activist and my uncle and grandfather was singers. So initially I started learning singing from my uncle Rahul Chatterjee. During school life I developed interest in learning piano. I was in standard 6 when I was introduced to a lot of western music by my friends. I started loving them. I got my interest in composing my own songs.

In my later school life I started with my band and we used to make Bengali rock new age music. We released some albums which were chartbusters and we did a lot of live gigs. During my graduation I started working on my music production skills. I worked for some Bengali independent albums and films. I was friends with Kunaal bhai through Facebook. After his grand hit Hasi ban Gaye, I came to Mumbai to record for a Bengali film and I met Kunaal bhai .He told me to shift to Mumbai listening to my works.Then I shifted and I started working here .

You have also worked in Bengali projects as well as Bollywood projects. What difference do you find in the working style of both the industries?

Rangon Chatterjee- Well, both the industries have talented musicians. But the first difference I fond is the reach of audience in terms of language barrier. And sadly the second part is money. Bengali industry has lot of good musicians but unfortunately there is very less money and since we make it our profession money becomes very important in terms of producing good quality music. But anyway, I have a soft corner for Bengali music since that’s my root and in coming years I would like to make more of Bengali music.

You also compose independent music. What do you think of the independent music scenario in India presently?

Rangon Chatterjee- Well, I must say that my background is from independent music itself. I strongly believe that independent music is the thing right now. You get to explore your choice of music. A lot of music label is supporting independent music these days. It is yet to become really large scale but I am sure it will become mainstream very soon because people now have different taste and they believe in good content. It is the right time to make independent music for every musician.

There is a growing importance of singles in the music industry. How important do you think are singles in shaping the music of the future?

Rangon Chatterjee- Singles are the thing right now because when you do a film song it is always a director’s vision and we have to fulfill that. But every musician has their own forte and singles are the only thing they can really prove their originality in terms of what kind of music they want to do. So definitely singles are the most important part now and if you see around, there are actually lot of singles and lot of good music happening.

What kind of music you like composing?

Rangon Chatterjee- Well I love to explore all kind of music but I think soft alt rock music or a love ballad or EDM are my things that I love to make the most.

Who are your inspirations in the field of music?

Rangon Chatterjee- Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Bach, Trent Reznor are my four inspirations.
And of course AR Rahman sir is one of the most powerful inspiration and learning process in my career. I hope I get to work with him someday.

What are your future projects?

Rangon Chatterjee- There are a lot of independent stuffs and collaboration happening now. My next movie is “Sayonee” and I have two songs in that.
I am coming up with my debut Hindi single this year. Hopefully by the end of this year I can gift my fans my single. I am also doing a lot of web series including Netflix, Amazon and some regional stuffs as well.

Wishing all the best to Rangon for his future projects!!