Shekhar Ravjiani is an emotional, sensitive 'buffoon'

Kutchi, born and brought up in South Mumbai, Shekhar Ravjiani, 38, is an emotional, sensitive and simple. While he is usually calm, there are times when he has a bad temper. He loves his daughter Bipasha the most, considers himself blunt and travels to different places when he is not working. His biggest critics are his daughter and wife Chhaya, who are currently hooked on to his latest song Zehnaseeb from the upcoming film 'Hasee Toh Phasee'. Over an hour-long conversation with Bombay Times in his studio, he talks about the mad Sujoy Ghosh, the extremely talented Sukhwinder Singh and why he needs to go to London every two months. Excerpts:

He narrates that music was a hobby for him. It was also in the family as his dad played the accordion. His dad was a share trader, but it was therapeutic for him to play his favourite songs on the accordion in the evening. Mum also had a beautiful voice and would sing. Their friends would come home and they would have music sessions. They lived very close to Jagjit Singh sahab, who was a close family friend. He would come home and he would go to his house when he was doing riyaz and would attend his concerts.

He took me to Mad Films to meet Mukul Anand, who coincidentally was making Dus at that time. He liked my stuff and asked me to make a title track for 'Dus'. While the track could finally not be used in the film, it was a great experience just being with Mukul and learning from him. I also started doing a lot of ad jingles for him. At 20, my friend pushed me to audition for Sa Re Ga Ma where I got selected. I was 23 when Raj Kaushal, who had been Mukul's assistant, gave me two songs to compose for his film 'Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi'. One day, I was leaving the studio and bumped into Vishal Dadlani.