Singer-composer Salim Merchant turns actor with YRF’s online short film Fired. He tells S Mallik that acting and creating a score are interconnected
Music is what Salim Merchant does best. From the moving tracks of Aashayein and Dor to the foot tapping tacks of ladies vs Ricky Bahl and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi to movies like Ab Tak Chappan — he has set tunes that will never grow old.
But in a changing industry where the lines between actors, directors and singers are fast disappearing, it came as no surprise to find the composer in a short film helmed by Yash Raj Films for their online series love Shots.
The seven minute film, Fired, also stars Tillottama Shome as Nidhi, wife of Merchant’s character Anand. It is a short sweet story of a wife losing her job and her husband resigning from his so that they can open their own cafe, sans wi-fi and TV.
It is Merchant’s debut as an actor and he recounted to us how it all happened. “I got a call from the casting director and she said that she had a script for me. She was a dear friend and I agreed. She said that someone would call me regarding the reading and when I went through it, it felt like home. Perhaps it is because I have done so many projects with Yash Raj,” he said.
The preparation process was crucial for him because he had to change as a person to understand Anand. “I never know I could do so much as an actor. The character was intense and passionate and was a new challenge for me,” he pointed out. The character, he said, has helped him learn a lot on life. “I had to internalise the character so that I could understand how he feels for his wife and how he brings his plan of starting Karma Cafe. There were a lot of reading sessions and workshops but I guess it paid off. I believe that if you work really hard, you can really touch the sky,” he added.
We asked him about this new trend of singers and music composers trying their skills at acting and he explained to us that both acting and music are connected to each other and is a huge quotient for cinema. “It is different from one another but somewhere it is interconnected. Because when I compose I have to understand the mood and temperament of the actor and the situation he is in. And for that, I observe. I actually picked up a lot when I was working on Ab Tak Chappan. And I see this as an exciting change for the industry,” he summed up.