RamTa EXCLUSIVE: Taufiq Qureshi Shares Story Behind The Title Of His Latest Album; Remembers Zakir Hussain

Taufiq Qureshi Exclusive: Taufiq Qureshi needs no introduction! The world-famous percussionist and his musically-rich family have been making all of us Indians proud since ages now! The music maestro recently treated fans with a much-awaited collaboration, quite literally, with Tabla maestro Bickram Ghosh. The duo's latest music album 'RamTa' takes the classical music to a new height.

Taufiq Qureshi recently sat down with Filmibeat for an exclusive conversation where he bared his soul about 'RamTa', his longstanding friendship with Bickram Ghosh, and of course, the late legends Alla Rakha (father) and Zakir Hussain (brother).

Here're the excerpts from the interview:

1) You come from a rich musical background. Did your family legacy influence your taste in music and how did it shape your journey as a percussionist?

My family's legacy has definitely influenced me. My biggest teacher and inspiration is my father, Ustad Alla Rakha. And the one who has influenced me the most is my brother, Ustad Zakir Hussain. My existence or personality has definitely been influenced by him because I've seen him since childhood. Zakir bhai is 12 years older than me.
So, I've seen my father and Zakir bhai. So, definitely my music, my behaviour, my personality has been influenced by him a lot. And I feel it's a good influence.

2) Your latest album with Bickram Ghosh, RamTa, is garnering a lot of attention. What was the initial inspiration behind this collaboration?

We have a lot of inspirations. His (Bickram Ghosh) father is his inspiration, my father is my inspiration. Zakir bhai is one of the biggest inspirations. So, we used to meet a lot of times. Our chemistry on the live stage has always been good. There is an energy, synergy between the two of us. So, we always used to think, let's do something. Let's do an album. This is what we used to talk about. Nothing else happened. One day, Dada said, 'we have been playing for 20 years... we should do an album now. I said, 'you said it, now you will have to do it'. Then, the date was fixed. After 5 days, I went to his studio and we worked on it for 3-4 days.

3) Can you share the story behind the title 'RamTa'? What's the meaning behind it?

Ramta is Bikram's 'Ram' and Taufiq's 'Ta'. Ramta also means playfulness. Whenever we met, there was a lot of playfulness with each other and that playfulness is there in this album.

4) The demise of Ustad Zakir Hussain must have created a void in your life which can't be filled. What was the most important lesson you learnt from, both musically and personally, that you'd continue to apply in your performances.

Of course, there is a huge void which can never be filled. But one thing that I've said before is that Zakir Bhai is in all of us. You will see Zakir Hussain in every musician. Someone speaks like him, someone laughs like him, someone's hair is like him, someone's clothes are like him, someone plays like him.

I will tell you an incident... on February 3rd, 2000, my father had passed away. And February 10th, we had a concert in Singapore. So, we were sitting on the 4th and I asked Zakir Bhai, are we going to Singapore? He said, 'of course, we will go'. So, my mother also said, this has just happened. My father would have wanted us to got and perform. Zakir bhai had said, 'people have a hope from you, tickets have been sold. We have to go, we have to play.' On the 3rd, my father passed away. He said, 'look, there are still some days left. Mourn as much as you want but the show must go on.' So, this is what I have learnt from him. This is a very big lesson I have got from him. And I will remember it all my life.

5) You have contributed music for films like 'Ashoka', 'Devdas', 'Tere Naam', and 'Jab We Met'. What's your take on the Hindustani classical influence on Bollywood songs in the past few years?

I feel there are a lot of classical songs in Bollywood... some of them are done by Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Salim Sulaiman, Vishal-Shekhar, or Vishal Bhardwaj. There is a lot of classical music. Vishal Bhardwaj has explored it with a very famous Thumri. Sanjay Leela Bansali is very influenced by classical music. So, definitely they are all influenced by classical music. And this is the power of classical music in Bollywood.