Shobha Warrier in Chennai

No one can think of Lagaan without its sound. All the dialogues of the film were recorded on location in Bhuj, Gujarat.

It was mixed at the Media Artists' DTS Studio in Chennai. Rated one of the best DTS studios in India, some the country's cream films are recorded here.

Lagaan is one such, the post- production work of which was done at the Media Artists' Lab in Chennai. H Sridhar of Media Artists is the sound engineer who recorded the music of Lagaan, as well as mixed the sound of the film.

He is also the person who recorded all of A R Rahman's songs. As Lagaan awaits it fate at the 74th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles, Sridhar talks about his experience as a member of the Lagaan team.

When did your association with Lagaan begin?

I met [director] Ashutosh [Gowariker] when he discussed the project with [composer] A R Rahman. I had no clue at all about the story when we started recording the songs. Obviously Rahman might have known the story but I didn’t ask him.

The lyrics were in Avadhi language. So, we needed Javedsaab's [lyricist Javed Akhtar] inputs while recording as the pronunciation had to be correct. The singers had to say mori instead of meri, instead of nahin, they had to say naahi [No], etc.

You have recorded all of Rahman's songs. Did you expect the songs of Lagaan to be such a big hit while recording?

Rahman always surprises me. I knew the songs would be well received but not to this extent. They had the folk flavor yet were modern. For example, I feel Mitwa is contemporary yet 100 years old. All the songs had a meditative quality about them. That is the amazing aspect of the songs of Lagaan.

Another surprising aspect was the use of voices. A song like Ghanan ghanan has five male voices singing a line each. Rahman used the right instruments at the right place. The tonal quality of the songs reflect the period, yet they please the young audience. I am sure he had that in mind when he composed those songs.

After long gap, Rahman sang Chale chalo -- it couldn’t have been sung by anybody else.

Another important aspect is, you just can’t separate the visual images of the songs from the audio. When we did the songs, all of them sounded very good but when we put them on the visuals, the effect was a hundred per cent more. That was one of the reasons why the sales of the cassettes jumped after the video was released. <> I would say Lagaan would triumph as one of his best albums, and one of our best works, too.

When did you get to see the film and start mixing the sound?

Ashutosh and Aamir were here with the complete film some time in December 2000 and they were at a hotel close to Rahman's studio. Rahman also composed the background score of the film.

Ashutosh was travelling with his editing machine. They would edit during the day. And at night, they were with us at Rahman's studio. I was amazed to see Ashutosh putting in around 22 hours of work every day. This is after a gruelling eight months of shooting in Bhuj.

At the time, I only got to see some portions of the film, mainly the songs. When Ashutosh wanted only me to mix the film here at Media Artists, I said I want to see the film. Aamir was also insistent that I do the mixing because I had done his film Rangeela here, which he loved.

I told him I wanted to see the film on the big screen. Not on the computer screen. So Ashutosh brought the film from Mumbai and we had a preview. Rahman, Ballu Saluja, the editor, Ashutosh, Aamir and I saw the film together. The film was up to the point the cricket team was formed. I did not see the cricket match. It was already 2 hours 40 minutes long! Then Ashutosh told me there were four more reels to come!

What was your reaction?

Well, I had done films like Pukar which was three hours minutes and China Gate which was 3 hours 20 minutes….. and, I know they were a little bit of a strain on the audience to watch. But Ashuthosh was so confident and focused.

I was blown by what I saw of the film. Everything looked so perfect. I felt the sound also had to be perfect.

Sound designer Nakul came here. Nakul also did the location sound recording with some very good machines and the dialogues were of excellent quality.

Aamir didn’t want to hurry up anything. He used to say, let’s not tire ourselves. Let’s make the correct decisions at the correct time of the day. Let’s not make decisions at 3 in the morning when we are tired, and repent later. He wanted everything to be perfect. But neither he nor Ashuthosh nit- picked!

Were there no arguments in the studio?

Arguments, fights -- every other minute, we had all that. But it was a healthy thing to do. Because we were fighting to create something better. When Nakul and I start mixing, we ask Ashutosh to get out. Only after we finished, we would let him in.

He used to come in and say, "Actually, I have 27 points." Then he would read out from a page. Paul's cough can go down a bit; Gracy's smile can go up a little; I remember hearing Aamir's cloak flapping when we shot, I think we will use the second take of Aamir's audio and match it with the video of the first take.

He spoke from memory. No notes. That man has tremendous memory!

See, our work was like laying a buffet table with the right kind of food. We were doing the chef's job of laying the table with the best-dressed food. We wanted people to have the best food. So we argued at every point.

We were mixing it on DTS, which is a six-channel surround sound medium. But this film was a 1893 period film. The first decision both Nakul and I had to take was to do the film on mono.

Mono on DTS? Why?

Because it was happening in a village in 1893 when there was not even electricity there. Yes, it is contradictory as we were using the sate of the art equipment to try and do something old!

First Aamir said, people would expect sound moving over their shoulder, over the head, etc, from a DTS film. We wanted to transport the audience to the location that was barren, where there were no trees or birds. The film had a strong narrative and we felt the surrounding sound would distract the audience.

Anyway, for 28 days, we worked like mad! I remember we finished on May 31, my birthday. We celebrated both in the studio.

Which was the most difficult part of the film to mix?

I would say, the last four reels of the film: the cricket match. Throughout the cricket match, there were multiple things happening on the screen.

The sound of the kacha Indian bat and the English bat are different. The sound of the ball hitting both the bats are different…

Then, the sound of the audience. They shot it with around 10,000 people on the location. But we had to create a cricket atmosphere that was happening in 1893. What would the villagers of those days do? Shout? Whistle? When they miss a ball, there would be that 'Oh!'

Would it be different from what we hear today? These were some of the questions that bothered us. We couldn't use the cricket match crowd that we had recorded at Chepauk Stadium (Chennai) or Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai). The last four reels were tough, very tough but the end result was very, very satisfying.

Will you be watching the Oscar ceremony?

Of course, of course. With fingers crossed! I also will be biting my nails!

For the first time, the right film went to the Oscars from India.

It is very easy to say getting an Oscar nomination itself is amazing. Every single person associated with Lagaan worked a lot. We have to win the Oscars!