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Pritam Chakraborty’s space also reflects his temperament – calm and collected
Four years ago, when he was struggling to make a mark in the music industry, Pritam had bought one of the top floor flats in the seven-storied Serenity building in Mumbai’s chaotic Oshiwara suburb. Four years on, riding on the crest of creative and commercial success, Pritam today owns all the four flats on the building’s seventh floor with work on to make the whole floor a single large unit. A predominance of wood sets apart his work place, as Pritam corrects, “Not just wood, it’s my favourite, the sleeper wood. And, I don’t mind it being all over the place even though some complain of it attracting the mosquitoes. Wood gives my music studio the feel of space and brings in a sense of calm to its rooms.”

Incidentally, when the busy music director has to work at length on a project, he just hikes off to the real woods off Mumbai’s neighbouring hill station Khandala, far from the madding crowd and out of mobile phone coverage area. “In Mumbai, there just isn’t any end to the calls anytime through the day. So I prefer working late in the night.” Normally in at his work place by noon, Pritam was shocked at our initial request of shooting at his studio at 9 in the morning. “That’s my sleeping time. My peak work hours are midnight to five o’clock in the morning,” he says. The interiours though bare, are functional enough to accommodate his office staff of 10 and can be divided into four major rooms. There’s a practice room with a guitar courting the pride of position. “I cannot compose without my guitar. I sing into a mike attached to my laptop,” informs Pritam. The Gen X music maker is tech savvy, and proudly displays that facet of his music making. A state-of-the-art recording room next to his practice room with flat screen computers contributes to that image.

However, it’s the yellow washed jamming room near the lift, where he holds court with his guests, interviewers, lyricists and singers. That’s where his famed band Metro – with Soham, Suhail, et al of the Life in a Metro fame – practice. The floors are bare, but the walls adorn large posters of Pritam’s idols – Queen, Pink Floyd, Beatles – “They are my favourites and inspirations. I bought those posters from Amsterdam,” he says.

On the room’s lone wall shelf, rest his three ITA (Indian Television Academy) Best Music director awards for the serials Remix, Kashmir and Kavyanjali, sharing space with a Bhool Bhulaiya trophy celebrating 100 days of theatrical run. This may be one section with ample space to spare at the moment, but going by the prolific music director’s hit run at the charts, this is one wall that promises to make a difference to his otherwise minimalist studio.

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