'The sound dimensions have multiplied and music has become convenient, fast, affordable with less effort. Earlier, work had to be completed in one go, now no rehearsals are required to record songs.

'The result is that A is as good as B, C or D and one can be replaced by another. That's the reason you have so many singers today. Recordings are not cancelled. Substitutes are easily available.'

Gupta says music is more dance- oriented now; 'hiphop, rock, melody is out, no soft music left now. Melody in a song helps to retain and recall from memory the songs you love to sing in your 'tanhai' (solitude).'

When Gupta left the Maithan mohalla of Agra in 1969 to join a course in sound engineering at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, no one thought he would one day become Bollywood's top sound engineer without whose assistance the likes of Lata Mangeshkar or Asha Bhosle would hesitate to record songs.

Gupta completed his course in 1971 and was lucky to get a break with RK Films and Studios straight away, meeting Raj Kapoor and Alauddin Khan sahib, his guru. Later he joined the Shakti Samanta camp as dialogue recordist. But since producers were not good paymasters, he joined a pharma company as an audio-visual engineer. Destiny forced him to return to Bollywood courtesy Joe D'Souza and since then there's been no looking back.

'I have worked with legends like Khayaam, Naushad, O.P. Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishan, S.D. Burman, Kalyanji Anandji, Vasant Desai,' he said.

He looks back with satisfaction as he shows his bundle of trophies - he won four Zee Cine awards for 'Border' 'China Gate', 'Kachche Dhage', and 'Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai' for best song recording and four IIFA awards for 'Murder', 'Koi... Mil Gaya', 'Kachche Dhage' and 'Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai'.

(Brij Khandelwal can be contacted at brij.k@ians.in)