Kary Arora Composes Tinkon Ke Sahare… for New Film

More and more women are joining male dominated careers. One of them is the first female DJ and the 5th female music composer in Bollywood, Kary Arora. Not resting on her laurels of being India’s top female DJ, she ventured into music composition, writing lyrics, rapping and grunge singing and made a mark for herself at pretty much everything she tried. Winning awards and laurels for her official remixes, finds her father her main guiding force, while her mother is her best critic. Kary is their only ‘princess’.
Her training for music and keyboards happened under Guru Ravi Prakash, grandson of late Shri Khemchand Prakash (who was the music composer of song Ayega anewala… of Lata Manageshker jee in movie Mahal).

Where were you born? How was your childhood?
I was born in Chandigarh. My childhood was regular except I was very much inclined towards poetry, sketching, music and storytelling. I remember winning a poetry contest at the age of 4. I used to Sketch cartoons copying from newspaper and I hated math badly. I used to cook stories about when I grow up I will be a princess and how I will change the world in a comic sense and everyone used to laugh so I guess comedy came naturally to me.
Were you attracted to music as a child?
Yes totally. I used to sing Darde dil… from movie Karz at the top of my lungs in our balcony. While in teenage I was heavily influenced by western pop and rock music and its culture, although now I hear all kind of genres. My dad bought me a walkman and I carried that everywhere with me listening to all my favourite artists.
Music and Bollywood being unpredictable fields, what did your parents say when you decided your career path?
For 18 yrs, I did Djing and from 3 yrs I have been composing so I keep surprising my Mom and Dad. Well at first they had no clue what’s Djing and composing in Bollywood is like but when I made them understand, they have always been standing like a rock with me. I discuss everything about my career with my Mom and Dad and they always guide me in the right direction.
Tell us more about your song Tinko Ke Sahare… from the movie Angry Indian Goddesses.
Tinko ke Sahare… is a song about life’s ups and downs. I was in that zone when I wrote this and took a day to compose it. I met Gaurav Dhingra the producer of Angry Indian Goddesses and Pan Nalin the director of the film and played this song for them. They immediately fell in love with this song as somehow the song fits in the film perfectly. I’m very fortunate and thankful to be one of the composers of this movie.
What are your other new projects as a singer and as a music composer?
I have a few projects lined up but it’s too early to talk about them. You see now-a-days we filmy people are very concise about maintaining promotional activities. At the moment all I can say my projects include films and music videos under my film production banner, so soon I will announce it to the world.
What is the current music scene in India?
It’s very versatile. We have music scene in Bollywood, we have music scene in Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festivals and we have independent artists trying to breakthrough via internet. I think this is an era of collaboration. Different composers in one Bollywood film, different stages for different genres in one EDM festival and artists from different genre featuring each other in one song.

What are the problems faced by newcomers in Bollywood and how to solve them?
The problems new composers face is not getting paid, no separate music videos to promote their song, copyright issues of music and lyrics, censor broad issues, credit promotion issues, the list is very long. The only way to solve this is a legal contract at the time when any film producer signs up a composer.
What do you do when not DJing, music composing or singing?
I like watching movies, spending time with family and relax on a beach. I try to unwind my brain by practicing it to go blank as it’s very important to rest the brain with body to prepare for next project, so that I can strike a right chord with the audience. I also like to read a lot about topics related to music and films, it helps me in story/lyric writing and conceptualizing projects.