Indian to western: The musical journey of Salim-Sulaiman

On CNBC-TV18’s special show, The mb. Inspired! Series, two of Bollywood's well known music composers, Salim and Sulaiman Merchant tries to find out their relationship with India's age old tradition of music.

Since their main Bollywood venture in 1997, the duo has come a long way and their creativity doesn't stop there. Here is the edited transcript of the interview on CNBC-TV18. Q: I think I said that to you about 10 years ago, maybe more? Sulaiman: Probably. Q: In 1999, you guys were like mere supernovas, full of potential, waiting to explode? Now you are bonafide superstars? Salim: You have memory. Q: I want to go a little bit down memory lane for you guys, with your family, it all started with mom and dad. You were growing up in a musical family, your dad being a composer, leading the Ismaili Scouts Orchestra. Tell me was this his dream for you to continue and follow in his footsteps? Sulaiman: I would think so. Salim: Yes, I feel that he was like an idol and as children we had musical instruments to play with instead of toy cars and stuff like that because my father was a manufacturer. After being a composer and composing music and having the Ismaili Orchestra, he also ran a business which manufactured musical instruments. So, he was a complete musician and he could sing as well. It was a very natural progression for us and as children we were studying music. Q: Did you feel you have the natural inclination for it or was it that because you had all this around you? Sulaiman: He never forced us to do anything. He always told us, follow your dreams. See where your passion leads you. Q: You guys both have some impeccable musical training background, you Salim at Trinity and of course with Taufiq Qureshi and from Ustad Zakir Hussain you learnt the tabla. Just tell me a bit about your experiences there because they are very different, Indian classical versus Western Classical? Sulaiman: We actually started learning everything together. We started with learning drums. Unfortunately, Salim was a bit younger and so he couldn't really coordinate. A drum is a very hand-leg coordination thing and very early on he realised that it was not his forte and he didn't want to do it.
I carried on with the drums and then we both started Western classical piano together and I realised that my hands had gotten so stiff with the drums that I could never really follow it through. Salim had supple hands at that point, so he could actually take on the piano. It was very natural for him to take up the melodic side and for me to take the percussive side. Salim: I studied with piano, but in between I went to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan to study harmonium and then I studied with Ustad Sultan Khan who is no more now. I started performing with him and then I studied Indian classical music with him. I used to learn ragas and sit with him for hours and listen to him. That was by itself an incredible learning process. I studied Indian classical music with him and then of course just performing with him and Ustad Zakir Hussain was the best learning process for me. For complete show watch the accompanying videos.