Pritam: The Reigning King Of Bollywood Music

How a Music Composer Accused of Serial Plagiarism Reinvented Himself in an Industry That Values Hits Over Innovation.
 

- Nirmika Singh

A glass containing a green juice sits atop a teak coffee table in Bollywood composer Pritam’s music den, located within a residential area in Mumbai’s Andheri suburb. Next to the glass is a tiny vial of medicine bearing a label in microscopic print. Pritam is sitting on the corner seat of a brown L-shaped sofa, busy fielding incessant calls on his cellphone. It’s 7.30 in the evening and he is having a bit of a bump trying to put together a small dinner party for his wife. It is her birthday today and he had forgotten to wish her in the morning. To make matters worse, it is a dry day.

There’s a soft knock on the door and a staff enters to clear the table. Taking the cue, Pritam does a swift bottoms-up with both the glass and the vial and hands them over to the man. After years of letting his health go to the dogs to keep his job, the 45-year-old composer is now making an effort to eat and drink right. His hawkish home staff keep a strict check on everything that goes into his body, and as much as he craves rice every afternoon, all he gets most times is a bowl of soupy vegetables.

The decluttering has also extended to his work. From slamming as many as 19 films a year during his most maddening years, he is now taking up not more than three to four projects. His reputation as Bollywood’s most consistent hit-maker is now a given.

Who started the fire?