Pritam

Pritam Chakraborty (born 14 June 1971), also popularly known mononymously as Pritam, is a National Award winning Indian composer, instrumentalist, music producer and singer from Kolkata, India. Graduating from FTII in Sound Engineering, he worked as an ad jingle composer, and later debuted as a co-composer alongside Jeet Gannguli in the 2001 Hindi film Tere Liye.
He debuted as a solo composer with the 2003 film Stumped. However, it was the soundtrack of Dhoom (2004), most notably the title track, which earned him his first big break in the industry and helped him win the Zee Cine Award for Best Track of the Year & vast acknowledgements.
In a career spanning over two decades, he has composed music for more than 125 Bollywood films and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including one National Film Award, six Filmfare Awards for Best Music Director and four Mirchi Music Award for Music Composer of The Year and many more. While he initially worked only on soundtracks and had multiple early collaborations with Vishesh Films and Yash Raj Films, the romantic drama Barfi! marked his first venture as a background score composer, and he later diversified his reportaire through collaborations with Dharma Productions and Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment.
Pritam was born to Anuradha Chakraborty and Prabodh Chakraborty in a Bengali Family. He gained his early training in music from his father who used to run a musical school and learned to play the guitar while he was in school.
He went to St. James' School and has a bachelor's degree in geology from Presidency College. Pritam was associated with the non-partisan political platform Independents' Consolidation during his days at Presidency. In 1994, Pritam joined FTII, Pune, where he took up Sound Recording and Engineering.
Pritam formed a band called "Jotugriher Pakhi" with his Presidency batchmates, for which he played the guitar. They released a cassette around that time. Pritam joined a Bangla band, Chandrabindoo. Later Pritam started the band Metro with James, Suhail, Soham, and Eric Pillai during his film called Life in a... Metro.
After completing his sound engineering course from FTII Pune, Chakraborty came to Mumbai in 1997. He started composing ad jingles where he met other budding artists such as Shantanu Moitra, Rajkumar Hirani, Sanjay Gadhvi and Jeet Gannguli. Pritam composed renowned jingles for brands like Santro, Emami, McDonald's, Head & Shoulders, Thums Up, Limca, Complan and composed title tracks for TV serials such as Astitva, Kkavyanjali, Ye Meri Life Hai, Remix, Kashmeer, Miilee, and Dil Kare.
Pritam got his first break for Tere Liye (released December 2001). Though the music was well-received, the film missed the mark. In 2002, The Jeet-Pritam duo once again composed music for Yash Raj Films' Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai. All the songs from the film were chartbusters. Soon after, over some misunderstanding, Jeet decided to split from the partnership.
Pritam's compositions were noted for their ability to blend Indian classical music with western styles. His compositions for Gadhvi's second film Dhoom were a runaway hit. The title-track of Dhoom in two versions – Hindi (by Sunidhi Chauhan) and English (by Tata Young) – broke geographic barriers becoming popular in pubs in the UK, USA and the East Asia and won him his first Zee Cine Award for Best Track of the Year. He received his first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for the soundtrack of Dhoom.
In 2006, he also composed the songs for Gadhvi's Dhoom sequel, Dhoom 2, which despite mixed critical reviews, achieved major commercial success and became the highest-selling Indian music album of the year. It also earned him his second nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.
He followed this up with compositions for films like Gangster, Jannat, Kismat Konnection and Kidnap.
In 2007, his compositions for Anurag Basu's Life in a... Metro garnered him widespread critical acclaim. He formed a band called Metro with Suhail Kaul, Sohu pet name Chakraborty, Eric Pillai and Bangladeshi singer James for the film. He won his second Zee Cine Award for Best Track of the Year for the song "Mauja Hi Mauja" from Jab We Met by Imtiaz Ali. Jab We Met won him his first Producers Guild Film Award for Best Music Director. Both Jab We Met and Life in a... Metro earned him his third and fourth nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.
He then composed the soundtracks of Jab We Met (2007), Race (2008), Kismat Konnection (2008), Kidnap (2008), Love Aaj Kal (2009) and Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009), all of which earned him his fifth, sixth and seventh nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.
His Sufi songs for the 2010 film Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai were popular with the masses and songs like "Pee Loon" and "Tum Jo Aaye" were declared chartbusters, earning him his eighth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. He teamed up again with Mahesh Bhatt and Vishesh Films for music of Crook of which the song "Mere Bina" got instant recognition with public. His foot-tapping numbers for Rohit Shetty's Golmaal 3 were also equally successful. In 2011, he got to work for Salman Khan's Ready and Bodyguard. He recreated the famous 1971 song, "Dum Maro Dum" for Ramesh Sippy's 2011 movie of the same name. He then composed for the romance Mausam which had a strong influence of Punjabi. The songs were phenomenal hits in Northern India with "Rabba Main To Mar Gaya Oye" being a rage among people.
In 2012, he composed several successful songs for films like Players, Agent Vinod, Jannat 2 and Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Ferrari Ki Sawaari, where he worked with Rajkumar Hirani. Later that year, he scored the music for Barfi! which won him two awards, including his first Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. Barfi is considered to be one of the most critically acclaimed soundtrack album of his career. He also reunited with Imtiaz Ali for the romantic comedy-drama Cocktail, which earned highly positive reviews, in addition to his tenth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.
In 2013, he composed music for films such as Race 2, Murder 3, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Dhoom 3 and Once Upon ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara which was his 100th film as a Music Director in Bollywood. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani in particular proved to be a milestone in Pritam's career, earning him widespread critical acclaim and accolades, and proved to be the highest selling Indian music album of the year. It also earned him his eleventh nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.
He started 2014 with compositions for Yaariyan, Shaadi Ke Side Effects & Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty. He then took a break in 2014. He received his twelfth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for Yaariyan.
He marked his return with three successful albums in 2015: Kabir Khan's Bajrangi Bhaijaan & Phantom and Rohit Shetty's Dilwale for which he earned his thirteenth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. The song, "Gerua" from Dilwale directly opened at the No. 1 position on the Radio Mirchi charts and became the first Bollywood song to cross 100 million views on YouTube in the shortest duration ever. It also ranked in the top slot in places like Malaysia, Oman, Sri Lanka and Bahrain.
In 2016, he appeared as a guest composer and composed the song "Itni Si Baat Hai" for Azhar; the albums other composers were Amaal Mallik and DJ Chetas. He also composed the soundtracks of Dishoom, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Dangal. The soundtrack of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil proved to be yet another milestone in Pritam's career, earning him career-best reviews and accolades, including his second Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.
In 2017, he composed the soundtracks of Jagga Jasoos (which earned him his third Filmfare Award for Best Music Director), Raabta along with Sohrabuddin, Sourav Roy and JAM8, Tubelight and Jab Harry Met Sejal along with Diplo, earning his sixteenth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.
After a break in 2018, he return to composing in 2019 with Chhichhore and Kalank, earning his seventeenth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for the latter.
In 2020, he composed the soundtracks of Love Aaj Kal (which earned him his eighteenth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director) and Ludo. For Ludo, he won his fourth Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.
In 2021, he composed songs for Tadap and 83.
In 2022, he composed all the songs of Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Laal Singh Chaddha (which earned him his twentieth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director). For Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva, he won his fifth Filmfare Award for Best Music Director, Zee Cine Award for Best Music Director amongst others. The song "Kesariya" from Brahmastra topped the Spotify India charts for 16 weeks and became the first Indian song to cross 300 and 400 million streams on Spotify.
In 2023, he composed for Shehzada, Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, The Great Indian Family, Tiger 3, Animal (1 song), and Dunki. As of now, he has 4 films lines up in 2024: Merry Christmas, Chandu Champion, Metro In Dino, and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3.
Pritam has composed and covered some popular songs in a variety of genres including Rock (Life in a... Metro), Sufi (Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai) and even Ghazals (Barfi). His musical style is mainly characterized as a delicate fusion of Indian classical music with contemporary undertones.
Pritam has been alleged to have plagiarized numerous songs from the beginning of his film music career. Hits such as "Pehli Nazar Mein" was plagiarized from the Korean song "Sarang Hae Yo" by Kim Hyung Su (2005). His critically acclaimed soundtrack Ae Dil Hai Mushkil also faced allegations of plagiarism as the guitar riff of the song "Bulleya" was lifted from the Papa Roach song "Last Resort".
Rolling Stone India says, Indian music plagiarism tracking site www.itwofs.com alleges 52 instances between 2004 and 2010 where Pritam's songs are said to be "lifted", "copied", "plagiarized", or "similar" to those of tunes by other composers, who range from Arab and East Asian artists (such as Ihab Tawfik, Yuri Mrakadi and Kim Hyung-sub) to Western musicians like Boney M. and Damien Rice. Especially famous songs of Pritam, like "Tikhi Tikhi", "Allah Duhai Hain" and some others were found to be copied or plagiarised from Turkish famous singer Tarkan.
In an interview with Hindustan Times, Pritam commented on the allegations of plagiarism in his music, "Yes, I did make mistakes initially. But once I realised it, I have been particular about my music. However, people keep making false allegations, because it's easy to do that. Since the last three years, I have stopped taking false allegations seriously. For example, the Iranian band that said I had plagiarised 'Pungi' (Agent Vinod; 2012) had to give an apology in court for using my name falsely."
Pritam mentored and judged Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009 and was a judge for Chhote Ustaad on Zee TV. He was also a guest judge for the X factor and Zee Bangla's Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2012–13. He also composed the title track for Hrithik Roshan's TV series Just Dance for Star TV which was sung by KK. Pritam sang some of his top hits on the popular show MTV Unplugged (Season 5) on 13 February 2016. Pritam is the mentor and judge of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2016 alongside Mika Singh and Sajid–Wajid. He was also a part of Star plus' show Dil Hai Hindustani as a judge alongside Sunidhi Chauhan and Badshah in 2018.
In a career spanning over two decades, Pritam has received 55 awards locally & globally, including 1 National Film Award, 6 Filmfare Awards for Best Music Director, 3 Filmfare Awards for Best Background Music, 5 IIFA - International Indian Film Academy Awards, 3 Zee Cine Awards, 2 Global Indian Music Awards, 1 Asian Fim Award and 4 Mirchi Music Awards for Music Composer of The Year from 118 nominations.[4]