No bling, no wannabe attitude and no false egos. Four boys who have taken the country’s rock music fans and Bollywood enthusiasts by storm are just as cool, sensitive and rocking in real life, as they are on the screen. Read on as LD chats up with the rocker boys – Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny and Purab Kohli as they talk about their passion for music, views on technology, battle against piracy and everything else in between
Q: What happens when a director turned actor, a model turned actor, a VJ turned actor and a music encyclopedia turned actor start shooting together in one movie?
Farhan: You have to hand it over to us that we are boys, and will remain boys. So, of course there were these little ‘boyish’ humour, craziness and fun on the sets, but yes, music kept us all together.
Purab: It was fun to watch Farhan taking a break between his shots, and playing a riff sample on his guitar, asking us to guess the song. Luke would talk non stop for the next 15 minutes about the history of the track, evolution of the band, their best and worst albums and his views on their music.
Arjun: And I would feel musically enlightened when all this happened.
Q: Is it true that you need to be musically inclined to do justice to a film on struggling musicians? Or did you just read up about a few unsuccessful bands?
Arjun: I guess our director was clever enough to choose a bunch of guys who are extremely passionate about music – especially rock music. Somewhere down the line, we ended up relating ourselves to a particular musician in a particular band.
Farhan: ‘Rock On’ draws inspiration from the lives of many small and big bands across the world. Before starting to shoot the film, we made it a point to view live concert videos of classic bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull.
Luke: The common thread that binds these bands is the fact that their concerts are extremely people-centric. They are known to magically energize audiences and connect with them. I have had many real life experiences on how this works wonders to the popularity of a rock band.
Purab: Also, domestic rock bands in
Q: The film is probably the first one in the country that ends with a plea to the audience to buy original music and not download it illegally. Luke, what are your thoughts on music piracy?
Luke: I personally own a collection of 2000 CDs, each and every one of them is legally purchased. I’m a living example to rubbish the fact that you download music which you can’t get at a store. If you really want it, it’s available for you to buy it. Remember that it’s not really the music company alone that’s out there to empty your wallet. Unless you buy the music, enough CDs won’t be sold to encourage the label to promote the artiste again. Sooner or later, the artiste will either resort to remixing shaadi songs or go back to his Dad’s business. Why do you want to kill genuine music when you can afford to buy one CD and ensure that the guy cuts more albums for you?
Q: How does it feel when you as a musician use technology to make better music and see it illegally downloaded using the same technology?
Luke: I think technology is a great boon for musicians. They can do so much more now is so little time. True, you can’t do a guitar riff using software, but you can enhance that real riff and blend it in with the vocals. Technology allows artistes to release their original songs on the Internet without having to have a record label burn your CDs. The listeners out there must also make an effort to use technology to legally access music. The moment you tell a friend about an illegal site, he is going to tell a dozen of his friends. I urge every one to promote legal music and help musicians make better music.
Q: I’m sure you guys have been looked upon as a band since the film released. Loving the attention?
Arjun: We’ve been feeling like rock stars ourselves. During our promo tours, I have women telling me how good I looked with my locks in the film. After a while, I began confessing that my stylists used to add extensions to my hair every evening. I felt like Goldilocks. But it all seems worth it now.
Purab: We are made to sing the songs every time fans meet us. This is when I push the other three to the front and ask the audience to clap their hands.
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