PETALING JAYA: Local Bhangra duo Goldkartz has become the first Malaysian and South-east Asian Punjabi group to be invited to compose and sing a song for a Bollywood movie.
The duo comprises Ipoh-born siblings Manjit Singh Gill, 26, a lawyer, and his brother Sukhjit, 22, a third-year law student at Universiti Malaya.
"When we received the invite from Bollywood film-maker Rajiv Mehra to produce a song for his latest movie Office Office, we just could not pass up the challenge," said Manjit, whose nickname is M-Ji, while Sukhjit's nickname is Surj.
"Our contribution is called Mauja and it was a little tricky for as we had to create an upbeat tune that had to convey weighty themes as Office Office was a comedy about government corruption. Sukhjit and I were thrilled when Rajiv accepted our song upon first listen, without having to make any alterations."
Office Office, based on an earlier 2000 TV series of the same title which Rajiv had helmed, just opened in cinemas in India on Aug 5.
Rajiv started out as an executive producer of 1980's actioner Alibaba Aur 40 Chor (starring Dharmendra as Ali Baba), then made his directorial debut on 1983's romance Ek Jaan Hain Hum (starring Rajiv Kapoor) and his subsequent hits as director-writer included 1992's Chamatkar (starring Shah Rukh Khan) and another TV series, 2004's Shararat.
"This has been a good year as our second album called 24 Karaatz, which we produced ourselves, went on sale worldwide on April 1, simultaneously in Malaysia, India, Britain, Canada and the US," said Manjit, adding that the album was released by Warner Music (for South-east Asia), Speed Records (India) and London-based Moviebox (worldwide).
Goldkartz's first album, called Loaded was released only in Malaysia and was distributed by EMI, received an entry in the Malaysia Book of Records as the first Bhangra album to be recorded and completely produced in Malaysia, and was also nominated at the Anugerah Industri Muzik Malaysia (AIM) in 2009 which is the local version of the US' Grammy Awards.
"Our first album sold about 5,000 copies and that led to frequent requests for us to perform live throughout Malaysia. Since then, we have regularly performed overseas and have shared the stage with artistes like Siti Nurhaliza, M. Nasir, Mawi, Shah Rukh Khan, Sonu Nigam and Udit Narayan," said Manjit, adding that over the past four months, 24 Karaatz sold about 10,000 copies in Malaysia and Singapore alone.
"We felt there was a lack of appreciation for Bhangra music in Malaysia and we modernised it by adding contemporary beats such as hip-hop, reggae and R&B, and applied synthesizers and rapping too. For 24 Karaatz', we were fortunate to get to work with Urban Bhangra music producer Rishi Rich, Mumzy Stranger and Panjabi by Nature from Britain, Tigerstyle from Scotland, Johnny Kalsi and Bollywood maestro Shankar Mahadevan from India, and Awie and Boy Radge from Malaysia. Rishi had worked for American artistes such as Madonna, Britney Spears and Timbaland."
Bhangra originated as an 11th century folk dance during harvest season in the Punjab region on the Indian sub-continent, and it took a millennium before Bhangra was popularised in the Western world via Punjabi immigrants in Britain in the 1980s.
"We just returned from India where we were interviewed over various radio and TV channels and will be heading back to India later this week for performances and to further promote our new album," said Manjit, adding that they have performed in Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
Goldkartz can be reached at 012-500 8889 and online at goldkartz.com, facebook.com/goldkartz and twitter.com/goldkartz.
via source
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Entertainment Asia
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