Music composer Arko Pravo Mukherjee makes his debut in Tollywood with Raj Tarun-starrer Lover

Music composer Arko Pravo Mukherjee is in a happy space. His recent song, Naino Ne Baandhi, from Akshay Kumar-starrer Gold, has garnered great response with 22 million views on YouTube. The Mumbai-based musician is all set for his Telugu debut with romantic comedy, Lover, for which he has composed the track, What A Ammayi. Originally written in Bengali, the fun and flirty composition took the Kolkata-born singer more than three hours of translation, while Telugu lyricist Sri Mani rewrote them. While this is his first time in Tollywood, the 35-year-old singer has earlier interacted with South Indian musicians — Anirudh Ravinchander and Devi Sri Prasad. “AR Rahman is my favourite though,” he shares.

Six years in the music industry and Arko has achieved a lot of musical feats. He is the only Indian to have featured on The Billboard Charts List with his English single Reeva, which was ranked 45th on the Billboard Dance Club top 50 Charts in 2017. “Reeva was more of an experimental track for me. So, when I was told that the song was in the charts, I was surprised,” he shares. 

Belonging to an academic family, Arko’s decision of making music didn’t happen in a day. “I was at a medical school for five years and that’s when I figured that I should quit this and go to Mumbai,” he says. After three years of struggle in Mumbai, Arko debuted with Jism 2 and went on to compose songs for Rustom, Kapoor & Sons and Baaghi 2.

With a working knowledge of Indian ragas and lyrics, Arko feels that the importance of words in a song depends on the genre. “When we compose a dance music number, the focus is more on the beats. But for a melodious love song, that won’t work. It’s important we understand the difference,” 
he says. 

The song is available on YouTube.