Six new actors: Jimmy, Jugal, Raman, Kim, Preeti, Shamita.

Six new voices: Ishaan, Udbhav, Manohar, Shweta, Sonali, and Pritha.

It was as natural as that. The idea fit just right into director Aditya Chopra's gameplan. Much has been said about Chopra's patient care and attention to detail, while preparing and grooming newcomers for their final act.

Much, however, has not been said about the same patient care and attention to introduce six new singers playbacking for the newcomer actors.

Runima Borah Tandon meets Lalit (of Jatin-Lalit composer duo) as well as some of the new voices. Excerpts:

What made you decide on new singers in Mohabbatein? Why not established singers?

See, the film is about three different love stories. Therefore, the songs had to be sung by six different voices.

We thought it would be a good idea to have fresh voices for the newcomers so that it also helps the album sound fresh. As also befit the freshness of the faces on screen.

Of course, we had to work extra hard. Though there is plenty of talent in our country, finding it -- sort of like at the right place at the right time effect -- was the crunch.

We had to really hunt for the six new voices -- Ishaan, Udbhav, Manohar Shetty, Shweta Pandit, Sonali Bhatawadekar and Pritha Mazumdar.

And if you hear the music of the film you will notice that except for Lataji and Udit Narayan's song, the rest have a group song touch to them.

How did you train these singers?

We first signed a contract with the singers so that they would be in Bombay full time for rehearsals.

They had nothing to lose. We had everything to lose. Our reputation was at stake with a banner like Yash Chopra!

For the duration of the recording and rendering of the songs, they would not do anything except work on our songs. While the songs were being fine-tuned, the singers had rehearsals every day for two months. It would have been difficult had we not done that.

You see, they had no practical knowledge of singing in front of the microphone. They were all very raw. In fact, we had to do a studio voice test to see if the voices sounded right on the mike.

Why go through all this? Because Mohabbatein is a big film and the music will obviously be compared to the previous films, especially Dil To Pagal Hai.

If we had taken established singers Alka, Udit or whoever, the freshness that we wanted wouldn't have been there. Agreed, initially it is very difficult for the audience to digest a new voice. But if you relate the songs to the film, it will prove our point that this was the only way that would do it to make it sound better and different.

How difficult was it for you to actually match the voices with the characters?

Difficult. Not easy at all. We first had to find out which singer best suited the emotions of a particular character.

If you hear the song, Soni, soni, all three antaras are different because each couple has an identity, an attitude quite different from the other.

That is why we had to compose different antaras for different couples and see which voice suited a character most. That voice was then fixed at that same character thoroughout the film.

How was it composing music for this film?

It was very difficult to deliver a hit with newcomers. That puts all the responsibility on the craftsmanship of the music director.

Had we used experienced singers, it would have been easier because they know what we need. Of course, they are also professionally qualified after having sung so many songs.

We had to work very hard with the new singers. They really had nothing to lose. We, on the other hand, had everything to lose -- our reputation was at stake with a banner like Yash Chopra!