Shankar Ehsaan Loy

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. The name strikes an instant chord with all Bollywood music lovers. Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa are among the most sought after music directors in Bollywood.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy – the trio is on cloud nine. Their music is selling like hot cakes and the trio cannot stop talking about it. Theirs has been a long journey; one from being music lovers to musicians to making it in the big, competitive world of Bollywood.

They hit big time only when Farhan Akhtar's DilChahta Hai came their way. The entire team - director Farhan Akhtar, actors Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna, and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy came together to give one of the most memorable movies of Bollywood. For the music director trio, there has been no looking back since then. They simply went from one hit soundtrack to another from Bunty Aur Babli to KalHo Naa Ho and now, KANA.

They make an unlikely trio - Mahadevan is a classically trained singer; Ehsan is a blues guitar player; Loy, a jazz fan. They do, however, have a couple of things in common - music is their passion and they are all from the ad industry. They were brought together by Mukul Anand for Dus, which never got released. What Bollywood did get was a brand new music composer team. Their music was unorthodox compared to the usual Bollywood fare but it soon became apparent than music lovers wanted to hear more of that refreshing music.

Unlike many composers, this trio does not make the mistake of blindly accepting all offers (and they get plenty). They take a look at the script, the banner, the director and the actors. If they like the script, they ask for the song situations and number of songs. Only then do they agree to compose. Music is a serious business to them. Their scrutiny has paid off. They have some of the most successful movies tucked under their belt today.

They are fans of the immortal R.D. Burman and then, A.R. Rahman. Both these musicians were pioneers in the world of music and they brought completely different sounds to films. Music lovers welcomed with open arms.

Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy consider themselves to be pioneers too. They take pride in making different, authentic music in every one of their films. Some say that their music has too many Western influences. The trio shrugs this accusation off. To them, music is universal and to classify their music as Western or Indian does not justify it. Rather, they have varied tastes and those tastes have introduced various influences into their music. The secret of their music, then, is a true love for music.