Two hit numbers marks the arrival of Vikram Montrose as music composer in Bollywood.

Even as Sanjay Dutt’s biopic Sanju is all set to cross the coveted Rs 200 crore box office collection, one man who is on a high is Vikram Montrose — one of the music composers of the film.

Reason: On the loop of music buffs are the two songs that have been composed by this Allahabad lad.

“Both ‘Baba Bolta Hain Bas Ho Gaya’ and ‘Kar Har Maidaan Fateh’ have received praise from both movie buffs and critics alike. I feel like on cloud nine,” says Vikram, a veteran of few albums and Marathi movies.

In Mumbai, literally struggling for last 13 years, Sanju marks Vikram’s arrival.

“I think it is. At least a lot of people know my name now,” he says while crediting Sanjay Dutt for the break.

“I owe everything to Sanjay Dutt. It was he who introduced me to Raj Kumar Hirani (film’s director) and encouraged me to come out with my best,” says Vikram, whose father NB Montrose is a known name in Allahabad. “My mother Dr Rama Montrose is a singer. In fact, my love for music blossomed when I used to accompany her to Prayag Sangeet Samiti when she was doing her Pravin,” says the St Joseph’s College alumnus.

While he has taken no formal training, he started singing and composing for functions at local churches. “The accolades I received while performing in Allahabad helped me get the confidence and the permission from my parents to shift base to Mumbai,” says the musician who has done a number of albums and also a Marathi movie.

So which one of the two songs is his favourite?

“Both are my babies and are getting praises. While ‘Baba Bolta Hain Bas Ho Gaya’ is a peppy yet somewhat sarcastic take on how every aspect of Sanjay Dutt’s life gets blown out of proportion, ‘Kar Har Maidaan Fateh’ is a purely commercial Bollywood number with a pinch of everything massy,” he says.

Baba Bolta Hain features Sanjay Dutt as well as Ranbir Kapoor, who portrays Sanjay in the movie.

“It’s a fun, sing-song sort of a track, where Kapoor is singing for himself,” says Vikram who got Ranbir Kapoor to accompany Papon and Supriya Pathak on the vocals in the song.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Cities> Lucknow / by Mohd. Arshi Rafique, Hindustan Times,Lucknow / July 05th, 2018

20-year-old Lucknow boy Rishabh Dubey is all set to come out with his third book that revolves around the collective concept, intent and ideologies of all religions existent in the nation of diversities.

20-year-old Lucknow boy Rishabh Dubey is all set to come out with his third book that revolves around the collective concept, intent and ideologies of all religions existent in the nation of diversities.

The book is titled ‘The religion called pragmatism’. His earlier books have been ‘The Mangoman’, a political-satire, and ‘Krikos: The Vertical Horizon’, a science fiction.

“My schooling from City Montessori School helped me in forming an unbiased perspective about different religions in India. Eventually, I realised that the contrasts in religions have mostly been due to misinterpretation, misrepresentations and partial-religious-consciousness,” he says.

Being member of nuclear family of liberals, Rishabh says, also helped him get a different comprehension of religion.

To get a wider understanding on the issue, he plans to travel across India covering as many religious centers as possible.

He says the only aspect channelling the existing differences were initial geography, demography and chronology.

Rishabh says his incessant zeal to create virtual characters and scenarios drifted him towards fiction.

“It was only when I was introduced to the art of science-fiction by a friend and also some of its pioneers like Huxley and Asimov that I found unwavering resonance,” he says.

The political set-up of India in 2014 helped Rishabh get the idea for his first book. “The book, The Mangoman, stands on the virtue that an omnipotent superman can never be the leader that a commonman can be which makes the latter the greatest superhero,” he says.

Partridge, a wing of Penguin Random House, gave him a collaborative offer for his second book, which in turn became his first officially published book.

Rishabh is pursuing MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai and loves to strike a balance between academics and writing.

“If we dedicate a few hours in the day we spend in school/college to concentrated learning we would have the rest of the day to act upon our dreams and pursuits,” he says.

Lucknow University denies admission to students who protested against CM AdityanathThis balance helped him to secure 95.75% in ISC examinations and is also presently aiding him in following his passion for writing.

His experimental urges have also helped him to become a social media influencer, a literary counsellor, a fitness motivator, a blogger, an orator and a travel writer.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Cities> Lucknow / by Rajeev Mullick, Hindustan Times,Lucknow / July 03rd, 2018