Ishq Bector wants Pritam's job

Ishq Bector is more than just a rapper. Few know that he has studied sports medicine and is a trained actor. We got to know all this and more during a tete`-a-tete´with the actor-musician.
The Return Of Ishq
The Indo-Canadian composer, Ishq Bector is popular for his get-up-and-dance tunes and his hilarious music videos (who can forget ‘Aye Hip Hopper?’).Visibly excited prior to the launch of his new album titled “Saali B**ch”, Ishq is unperturbed about the Censor Board’s ban on the video of the album’s title track, which features a girl and female dogs.
“You’ll be surprised to know that they (the Censors) have no problems with the lyrics or the video in itself. I even changed the title to “Saali Mirch” for their sake,” he said, adding, “The issue is that they need papers proving that the dogs used in the video were treated well while on set. Since we shot the video abroad, arranging the papers is taking some time. And I’m not too keen on waiting, so I decided to release the music video on the internet anyway.”
Ishq gives us a lowdown on all the tracks. “The title song was born when I was talking to a friend of mine about his horrible girlfriend, she was really bajaoing him. In that mood of masti-mazaak, “Saali B**ch” was composed. I made my friends at the record label hear it, and they loved it! They decided to have me compose a couple of more tracks, and launch a full-fledged album.”
The album “Saali B**ch” also has Ishq singing his first Bollywood-inspired romantic ballad and ahem... a Sufi track (really?). “This album has a few serious sounding songs, but it’s me, and I’ve to do something crazy in my videos.” Talking about crazy videos, who can forget his collaboration with Rakhi Sawant. “I’ve great respect for Rakhi as an artiste, she approached me with the wish to collaborate, and I complied. I enjoyed working with her. We made two songs together, one was called “Jhagde”,” he said. But things don’t seem to be so cordial now that Ishq has gone ahead and called Rakhi a b**ch on TV. “She is a friend of mine and I have a lot of respect for her, so I can call her that. But nobody else dare do so.”
Ishq has surprisingly chosen to compose all-Punjabi songs for the album. He explains, “In India, pop music outside Bollywood is dead. But in the North, a lot of Punjabi albums are still sold. So I decided to experiment, and come up with Punjabi songs that cater to a slightly more urban audience.”
The creative Ishq
“You’ve heard of low budget videos? Well, I present to you a no-budget video,” boasts Ishq. The story goes that while shooting for the song “Happy Singh” (which is the upbeat wedding track of the album), the set caught fire. “The set was destroyed; we had no money and there were only eight hours left to shoot. So we came up with this crazy suhaag raat concept and shot it right away. The record label felt that it would be the breakout video of the album,” said Ishq.
“People blow up endless money on music videos, and come up with stale material. You don’t need millions to come up with a good video, just creativity,” he says adding, “My videos have a storyline, beginning, middle and a resolution. I like to do crazy things in my videos. I guess I’m constantly trying to push the envelope for creativity.” Ishq has already composed for films, including a number for “Ugly Aur Pagli”. “I love composing for films. In fact, I now want to be a full time Bollywood composer and I want to steal Pritam’s job!”
Many faces of Ishq
Ishq is more than just a music-guy. His fans swear that he is good with his moves on the dance floor too. “I started out as a dancer. I was in a street dancing group. I started to write songs for my dance group, and that is how I got into music.” Before his music career, he had trained in acting.
“I did the acting training for a while. But my first love has always been music. That is how I enjoy channelling my creativity. Dancing was fun too, but now I have become such a studio-hermit, I don’t find the time anymore,” declares the singer. “I’m going to be in an English language film about vampires,” he claims. “It’s being shot in 3-D. And the best part is that I get to play myself. A composer called Ishq Bector who turns into a vampire,” he said.
About his family, Ishq says, “They’re supportive of me now. When I first told them what I wanted to do, they were shocked. They left India to give me a good life. They couldn’t understand why I wanted to come back here.” But his India journey has panned out well. “It’s funny. I came to India to introduce Indians to Western street music. And look at me now, Indian street music is what I compose,” concludes Ishq.