Newton and Kohrra’s Background Composers Talk About Their Process: “Justify Your Presence”

Tatsam Mukherjee

Benedict Taylor and Naren Chandavarkar Have Been Lurking Around in Hindi Cinema For Nearly 13 Years Now

Ranging from Anurag Kashyap’s That Girl In Yellow Boots (2010), Avinash Arun’s Killa (2014) to Trial By Fire and Kohrra.

Ship of Theseus(2012)

Looking back at the film, it almost feels like this abstract piece of art, where we were guided by the visuals rather than musical notes written on paper. We were chasing the feeling of these mesmerizing visuals on screen.

Newton(2017)

With Newton, the edit told us everything we wanted to know about the film. On the one hand, we could be more punchy, but finding the quirk was an exploration. It was a fun discovery to find the musical realization of what he might be feeling.

Trial by Fire(2023)

We approached Trial By Fire as short films. One of the first things we discussed was giving grief momentum through music. Prashant knew he didn’t want the show to be filled with pity and sadness — he wanted the music to reflect the momentum and resilience through grief.

Kohrra (2023)

We were discussing with Sudip (Sharma), what the score should be like, not knowing what the word ‘Kohrra’ meant. We came up with how the score should be like this omnipresent fog. (But) it’s only later we realized that ‘Kohrra’ literally means fog (laughs).