Nadaaniyan composer Tushar Lall: ‘Scoring is storytelling too’

Ibrahim Ali Khan makes his acting debut with Nadaaniyan, which also stars Khushi Kapoor

If you're over the age of 30, this piece may serve as a rude awakening. Roped in to compose the score for Nadaaniyan, Ibrahim Ali Khan and Khushi Kapoor's love saga that released online on Friday, Tushar Lall was tasked with scoring for a generation he couldn't entirely comprehend. "At one point in the film, the characters are seen soft-launching each other on Instagram. Now, I don't know what soft-launching is," he says, quick to add, "because I'm in my 20s now." It takes us a moment to comprehend that Lall isn't being sarcastic. "If I turn 29, and there is a 20-year-old around me, it's highly possible that a generational gap will exist because he has grown up with abundant information and access to social media," he reasons, adding, "There are a lot of things in the film that I did not know exist today [among Gen Z]."

Composer Tushar Lall. Pic/Yogen Shah

How does this disconnect affect his work as a composer, we ask. "It did, because while I had to [create a score] for Gen Z, the score needed to be orchestral too. These two sounds are different. My references [to cater to this generation] were Ms Marvel [TV show] and other American teenage films that are being released right now. Combining that with orchestral [music] was a challenge. Using orchestral music was important considering the nature of the films that are backed by Dharma [Productions]. This genre is a [requirement] for their style of storytelling. The climax of [this show] sounds like a Disney score."

Lall describes Nadaaniyan, which marks Saif Ali Khan's son's debut and late actor Sridevi's daughter Khushi's second web offering, as a film on affluent school kids who attempt to comprehend love using transactions. "Their [actors] natural personalities aligned so well with their roles that it fulfilled what the film needed. Shauna Gautam, our director, was able to get the best out of them, and of me, since this is my first romcom," says Lall, who has previously worked on a slate of films, including Brahmastra, Dancing on the Grave (2023, based on the Shakereh Khaleeli murder case), Curry & Cyanide - The Jolly Joseph Case (2023) for Netflix, Paresh Rawal's Jo Tera Hai Wo Mera Hai (2024), and Randeep Hooda's Sergeant (2023).

Karan Johar

His resume may boast credits as composer of both songs and scores, but it is the latter that, he says, needs to be dealt with more tactfully. "As the background score composer, you are, in a way, writing the story with music. Even if there's a black screen before you, the score should give you a sense of what is happening; that is the mark of a good score. It must hold the story even if the film isn't there. That's why I was involved early on in the process, even before shooting began. I read the script a bunch of times and knew the shooting schedules too. For these schedules, often the actor may even need a part of the score to pace or dance to. Scoring is also storytelling." For Lall, it is the tribute that he got to pay to Miss Braganza that was notable. "She hasn't aged a day," he says of Archana Puran Singh, who reprised her role 27 years after she first played it in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. "It was iconic. I got access to the [clips] of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and remixed it in different parts. I think that's very cool."