EXCLUSIVE | Director Girish Malik and music maestro Bickram Ghosh on their film ‘Band Of Maharajas’ being in the race for Oscars 2025: ‘This is our second contention in 10 years and…’

India’s Band of Maharajas in the race for The Oscars In a moment of immense pride for Indian cinema, Band of Maharajas, a musical film directed by Girish Malik, has been declared eligible for the Oscars in two prestigious categories. The film’s soul-stirring song “Ishq Walla Daku” and the captivating Original Score, composed by the renowned Maestro Bickram Ghosh, are in the race for the Oscars contention for nomination in the Best Original Song and Best Original Score categories.

This achievement is a testament to the incredible synergy between Girish Malik and Bickram Ghosh, who previously earned Oscar recognition for their acclaimed film Jal in 2014. In an exclusive interview, the gifted duo Malik and Ghosh spoke about it.

Edited excerpts from the interview

Bikram, what inspired you to make the music of Band of Maharajas?

The inspiration was that the film is a musical. Everything that happens in the film is because of music and for music, so finding such opportunities is rare. This also happens to be our second Oscar contention in 10 years after Jal. There is a certain sense of responsibility after you do good work. I get a lot of musical scripts, which we unfortunately don’t see in movies very often. The ambience of music in this film is so huge that it was a really fun experience working on it. I asked Girish to come to Calcutta because we can actually work in isolation, in Mumbai, there are thousand things going on. The final product has to be of international standard.

How does it feel when your work is recognized on an International platform like the Oscars?

This is a validation that you are doing good work. You realize that you are doing good work, but nobody can predict what the reach of that work will be. You feel you have done something right when you are eligible for the Oscars. I’m very happy and excited. We are on the right path is what I’ve realized.

Girish, what inspired you to make Band of Maharajas?

Music has been imbibed in my system. I think, right from my childhood in a way. Because I was a classical dancer. My schedule when I was in theatre as an actor earlier. I used to work with lot of senior people. Those kinds of Broadway. And there are all those musical genres. So music was somewhere down the line a part of me ever since I was growing up. It was very, very intriguing. I can only hear the music and do this. You have to be there. And we can hear all this, a very beautiful poetry, which is not today to this time that you hear in India and in Pakistan.

And that time is why our elders usually talk about how this heritage used to be so common. And now that this country has divided, but how music is still is not about both the countries in the same way. The story was about these three boys, who live at the border. They live where half of them is in India and have a living in no man’s land. So he’s like, you know, all the thoughts that he has to grow up meeting and literally, you know, not liking Pakistan because someone’s was a thought. A lot of musicians were killed, and also a lot of musicians were tortured or whatever.

There are a lot of radicals around, not in every part of, like, major parts in Pakistan were against music. So that kind of idea emerged in my head. So this whole thing became a very huge story for us and the journey.

So what does this Oscar nomination mean for Indian cinema and for you as a filmmaker?

Such massive global platform recognizing any film from any part of the world is very, very important, especially for India. And India absolutely makes stunning films in terms of music, in terms of their own culture and everything. Music has been on the rise for sure. It’s a major recognition at a global stage. And I think this is also because we make things that are not suitable for the best in audience and maybe not suitable for the best contentions. And that is killing me.

I do not blame India in a way because we do not need money from anywhere because we have a large band of audience that go there to watch cinema. We talk about Bollywood or the mainstream world so we we did make it for commercial purposes. At the same time, of course, I would say, from last few years, cinema is also getting the bell because the new generation is looking at the alternate cinema. So now when I say alternate cinema, it’s not an art cinema. It’s more artistic cinema.