Composer Duo Sachin Jigar on the Songs of ‘Farzi’ and How There’s Room for Everyone in the Industry

Every time one of their songs has become popular, composers Sachin Sanghvi and Jigar Saraiya (Sachin-Jigar) lose sleep. Sanghvi says over a video call from their studio, “We come from a place where we don’t want to repeat ourselves.”

From “Saibo” off 2011 film Shor In The City’s soundtrack to “Apna Bana Le” sung by Arijit Singh for Bhediya in 2022, Sachin-Jigar have steadily defined what it means to be composing for varied audiences in India and beyond. Although they certainly serve big romantic and grandiose numbers for Bollywood movies like many in the industry, there’s also a certain edginess to them, especially when they get to compose for web series.

Among those recent ones is Farzi, the crime thriller created by filmmaker duo Raj & DK (who are also behind another action and crime series, The Family Man). With songs like “Paisa Hai Toh” featuring singer-composer Vishal Dadlani and hip-hop artist Mellow D, Madboy/Mink’s Saba Azad on the synth-inflated “Sab Farzi” and “Fark Nahi Padta” featuring rapper DRV aka Dhruv Rajpal and singer-composer Nikhil Paul George, Sachin-Jigar push the envelope even further. Jigar Saraiya says the brief was pretty much inviting them to break barriers of how Hindi music can be perceived. He adds, “Raj and DK were very particular about how it [music for their show] sounds and they’ve always wanted it to be new and coming-of-age-sounding stuff. When that’s the brief, it automatically changes your perception on even how to compose a certain song, because it needs to lend itself into a newer soundscape.”

Sachin-Jigar, were, at the end of the day, driven by the characters and story of Farzi – about an artist (essayed by Shahid Kapoor) turned counterfeiter who dreams big and plays with fire – and channeled indifference, society’s double standards and the inter-generational relationship with money. Sanghvi adds, “With Raj and DK and Jigar in the mix, anything we do cannot sound like anything we’ve done before. It’s a great starting point.”  

How much did the composer duo have to push themselves to arrive at this sound, with these specific talents? Sanghvi notes that being edgy is not enough. “You always need to have meat, have the substance there. You’re serving a script, after all,” he says. Saraiya adds, “We don’t want to get into the loop of sounding a certain way because that stops or limits us from exploring and brewing. That’s a basic instinct.” He points out how, in “Saibo,” it was originally intended to just have piano and a little guitar. “We didn’t want an inch of synth in it,” Saraiya says. He cites references to bands like Coldplay, who started out in alt-rock and went on to make electronic and atmospheric pop music. “That’s what evolving is about,” Saraiya adds.

The duo is all praise for the artists on Farzi songs – DRV (who also wrote a bit of lyrics for “Fark Nahi Padta”), Azad, Mellow D and Dadlani. While the series also features a composition by Tanishk Bagchi with singers Raghav Meattle and Anumita Nadesan, Sachin-Jigar are always keeping their ear to the ground about finding new talent from Indian indie to tap for their work.

Saraiya says, “We want to make a clear distinction, a wall between our music and our web show music.” Sanghvi notes he’s a big fan of singer-songwriter Ronit Vinta and pop duo Mitraz, as well as Nadesan’s songs. Saraiya points to the affable nature of singer-songwriter Anuv Jain’s songs and digs the work of singer Madhubanti Bagchi. He adds, “I recently heard Osho Jain’s ‘Kya Meri Galti Thi’ It’s beautiful how there’s a bit of an alternative rock coming back and how these songs are all very conversational and matter-of-fact.”

With Gujarati music, Bollywood music, web series soundtracks and their individual releases as well, it’s no surprise to hear that the duo are very happy about where the music industry has taken them, like when they mixed electro and reggae for “Babaji Ki Booti” from 2013 film Go Goa Gone. Saraiya admits that there was a span of about four years where they had to “stick to the formula” but they tried as much to push back. “We are now getting back to the reality and the goodness of being a music composer for Bollywood. If any composers out there, even upcoming composers out there reading this – just make the music that you feel like, even for Bollywood, not only as independent artists, because I think times have gone back to being good times,” he says.

Sanghvi has a smile on his face by this point and he’s in agreement. “There’s a newfound love to go back to the keyboard and compose something original and not worry about whether there is an audience for it or not, or whether it will hit the charts or not. It just feels like there’s room for everyone, there’s room for creativity.” He adds, “I wake up with a sense of confidence every day and say, ‘Aaj kuch accha naya banate hai’ [let’s make something good and new] without the worry of someone telling you, ‘Yaar kuch tabla dholak dal de.’ [please add some tabla or dholak to this song]”