Disco Dancer: Salim-Sulaiman on recreating Bappi Lahiri-Mithun Chakraborty’s 1980s magic

Music-composer duo Salim Merchant (left) and Sulaiman Merchant.

Composer duo Salim-Sulaiman have had a fabulous start to 2023. Their Merchant Records seems bullishly buoyant, they have come up with a dedicated devotional music channel and, this month, are all set for the India premiere of their musical, Disco Dancer, that had found much appreciation in London last year. In an exclusive conversation with Moneycontrol, Salim Merchant, 49, one half of the musical duo, speak about the musical, the challenges of recreating the eponymous Mithun Chakraborty-starrer 1982 blockbuster film for the stage, and about launching a devotional-music channel that will feature all faiths. Edited excerpts:

Salim-Sulaiman's 'Disco Dancer' stage musical in London.

Your new musical will be premiering in Mumbai this month, but musicals aren't a new zone for you.

We launched the musical Disco Dancer last year in London, it did really well there, and we are doing it in Mumbai from April 10 onwards at the NSCI Dome in Worli. Our first musical was Beyond Bollywood which was 10 years ago. It did exceptionally well in London, Europe, the UAE and at the Kingdom of Dreams (Gurugram). We then did Umrao Jaan in 2019. And again, we did a very successful run of it in London in January 2020. Following this, COVID stalled everything, and we will be relaunching the Umrao Jaan musical very soon. That’s our next project.

The 1980s movie, Disco Dancer, was a superhit… why did you choose this for a musical, how are you going about presenting it on stage?

Mithun da’s (Mithun Chakraborty) Disco Dancer was the most epic film! In those days, in the ’80s, it was one of the first few films to have crossed Rs 100 crore (earnings) back then. We love the film and whenever we see it, we are transported to that era. I have seen it three times as a child. I was a kid when it released, and can never forget it because I used to watch Mithin da’s steps and was so much in awe of that music. And Bappi da’s (late Bappi Lahiri’s) compositions were super hits: I Am A Disco Dancer (written by Anjaan, sung by Vijay Benedict), Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja (Anjaan's lyrics and sung by Parvati Khan), Koi Yahan Nache Nache (by Faruk Kaiser and sung by Bappi da and Usha Uthup), Ae Oh Aa Zara Mudke (written by Anjaan and sung by Kishore Kumar), Yaad Aa Raha Hai (Anjaan's words and Bappi da’s voice), Krishna Dharti Pe Aaja (Anjaan's lyrics and sung by Nandu Bhende), Goron Ki Na Kalon Ki (two versions written by Anjaan and sung by Suresh Wadkar and Usha Mangeshkar). So many hits in one single film, single album. It was a rare project when all songs did so well nationally — combined with Bappi da’s iconic music, Mithun da’s dance and acting and Babbar Subhash’s direction. We wanted to bring that alive as a musical on stage.

To recreate a classic isn’t easy, especially so if you are using a different platform — a film to a stage musical. How much of this was a challenge?

It is a huge challenge, of course, because obviously the film had a lot of layers about the mother, the struggle of a poor boy growing up to become a mega star, and then after his mother’s demise, he takes revenge, there is a lot of subtext for this musical. There are many good messages of belief, determination, love for your parents, love for your art and, of course, there is a romantic love story in it also. It was a huge challenge to recreate historic, legendary songs of Bappi da, and then bring it on to the stage. We also had to compose two fresh original songs especially for this musical. And since it is set in the ’80s we relived the entire era with costumes, dancing and dialogues. It was quite the challenge.

Disco Dancer musical in London

Tell us about the cast. Are all the actors also singers?

Yes! Arjun Talwar plays the role of Jimmy, Tia Kar is the female lead. She was an Indian Idol contestant from 2012, whom I have known closely because I was a judge for that season. All the singing is live, and music is partly recorded and partly live. Of course, there is amazing choreography directed by Rajiv Goswami. He has done incredible work. He directed Umrao Jaan, Beyond Bollywood and this is his third with us. Irfan Siddiqui is the lyricist and has written for a lot of the movies I'm composing for, including Fashion (2008), Iqbal (2005), Kurbaan (2009). He has also written the new song that we have composed for this particular show and also the dialogues. Saregama India Ltd is producing it and Suniel Shetty, who is a huge fan of Bappi da and Mithun da, is presenting it.

Bappi da passed away last year. Did he know about this musical? What was the first reaction to this?

When I last spoke to Bappi da in 2019, about our intention of redoing the iconic film as a musical for the stage, he was extremely happy. It was my dream that Bappi da could come for the premier. He gave us his blessings all throughout the making of the musical. It’s really unfortunate that we lost him last year.

Arjun Talwar as Jimmy in 'Disco Dancer' stage musical in London.

You recently launched a devotional channel. Tell us about that.

My label is doing very well so I am extremely happy with that. We are releasing many new songs, focussing on festivals and, recently, we started a new devotional channel, with the beginning of Ramzan. On this, we will be releasing devotional music from various faiths, right from bhajans, Sufi, qawwalis, aarti stutis, shlokas, mantras. We released the Ramadan Mubarak track, then on Ram Navami, which is also considered Sai Baba’s birthday, we released a Sai bhajan, Japu Sai Naam. We will be releasing the Hanuman Chalisa this week and a very popular aarti, Om Jai Jagadish Hare. We are going to be releasing almost 30–40 devotional pieces this year. Apart from that, our Merchant Records channel is also doing very well. We used to do three to four songs in a month, now we are doing eight songs in one month.