Vishal and Shekhar’s new film Happy New Year ties in with the duo’s 15-year partnership as music directors in Bollywood

Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravijani are on a roll. Their soundtrack for Bang Bang!, the Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif action drama that smashed the box office earlier this month, is still at the top of music charts. And their compositions for Farah Khan's Happy New Year are going the same way. The musical-heist drama, partly shot in Dubai, has Shah Rukh Khan leading an ensemble cast, including Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Boman Irani and Sonu Sood.
Dadlani, a hard-rock music enthusiast, and Ravijani, who has a background in classical music, first came together in 1999 to compose for Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi, starring Dino Morea and Rinki Khanna, which tanked at the box office but the songs – especially the reggae-esque Musu Musu Hasi and the romantic Woh Pehli Baar Jab Hum Mile – went on to become cult classics.
From winning the R?D Burman trophy for New Music Talent early on for their work in Jhankaar Beats to composing the jingle for last year's Indian Premier League, Vishal-­Shekhar seem to have found their comfort zone in fusion music, melding techno sounds, thumping beats and soulful ­lyrics.
They've also done some fairly unconventional work – they won critical acclaim for the Marathi film, Balak Palak; they've dabbled in Telugu music; and in 2011 collaborated with the Grammy award-­winning English singer and songwriter Imogen Heap on her track Minds Without Fear.
Dadlani sums it up well: "If the song is good, it does not matter whether it's in English, Hindi, Chinese or Swahili. We are musicians and all we care about is that our songs should shine."
• Happy New Year opens in cinemas today. For our interview with the stars and all the red carpet gossip, visit www.thenational.ae/arts-lifestyle
pmunyal@thenational.ae