The star-maker
By Dharam Pal

When the glitzy videos have been switched off, the new ‘face’ been congratulated for a ‘great job’ and record companies sit back to lap up profits and praise, one man just smiles from the wings, happy at having seen yet another of his discoveries launched successfully. For Jawahar Wattal work never stops. There’s a lot of talent out there to be found, lots of songs to make and a new artiste to create. Now he has become a household name across the country and ranks high on the popularity charts.

Day in and day out for the past 17 years, Jawahar — known in the Pop music industry as the Quincy Jones of India — has groomed enough artistes to single-handedly make record labels sit up and recognise Delhi as a hotbed of talent. Talent which would have gone unnoticed and remained untapped for this young Kashmiri Pundit, who by the way, is also an MBA, operating from a 24-track digitalised recording studio, ADCAMP, for the production of original music arragements.

The list of his proteges is formidable: Baba Sehgal, Shubha Mudgal, Ustad Shujaat Khan, Daler Mehndi, Bhupi, Sudeep and many many more. One would almost think he’s seen it all.

But Jawahar, the level-headed Virgo, is not the one to rest on his laurels. Maybe that’s why he still longs for a challenge.

"Novelty is what I am attempting at (always). My work must pose some challenge to me," he says earnestly. "I want to do something which people have not done before.

Perhaps it’s this hunger for the new which has led him to experiment with so many new voices and open up new avenues in pop.

He started early with Dilruba, with which he introduced Baba Sehgal. "In 1990, Dilruba was way ahead of its time," he remembers without a trace of pomposity. "Recording technology was not what it is now. But still Dilruba was a great album."

From Dilruba he moved on to bigger things, breaking new ground almost always. He must be the only composer in the country who can boast of having done albums in Tamil pop, Rajasthani pop, Punjabi pop, apart from remixes, ghazals, English pop and, yes, even an album of Christmas carols, "for the kids", he smiles indulgently.

His crowning moments have been many. The one he cherishes most was when he managed to persuade classical music queen Shubha Mudgal to cut a pop album — Ali more Angana. He followed that up with the critically acclaimed ‘Lajo Lajo’ with Ustad Shujaat Khan, son of Ustad Vilayat Khan. "What I tried to do is make classical music more user-friendly," he says simply.

The more visible of his proteges on the pop music scene today are Daler Mehndi and Bhupi, which has led people to believe that Jawahar is the real Bhangra pop king. Jawahar, the master of pop has come up full circle with his three hit albums Deewane to Deewane Hain which brought Shweta Shetty back as the queen of pop, Bhupi the new entrant to Punjabi pop, and Mahi-o-Mahi with Pakistani top pop singer Ali Haider. Apart from this Jawahar Wattal is teaming up with the king of Punjabi folk Hans Raj Hans. His forthcoming projects are with new female singers Sanjeevni of Kareeb film fame, Alka Yagnik, Ram Shankar, Jagjit Singh and famous Pakistani singer Ataullah Khan.

And now after working with well-known artistes Jawahar is back in his studio doing what he’s best at — introducing new voices. There’s so much more magic from this wonder man’s magical fingers. Singularly responsible for putting Delhi on the musical map of India, it is Jawahar Wattal’s winning combination of sheer musical brilliance, professional attitude and his ability to predict what Indians will like to listen tomorrow that gives him the cutting edge.