Exclusive: Haunted 3D Composer Prateek Walia on His Struggle Before Vikram Bhatt Gave Him a Break

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For singer and composer Prateek Walia, Vikram Bhatt’s Haunted 3D: Echoes of the Past marked an important step in his journey in film music. Walia composed six songs for Bhatt’s film and has also lent his voice to one of the tracks. His credits include Bloody Ishq, Tumko Meri Kasam and the title track of the Gujarati film Badhu Alright Che, following years of working on independent music and cover versions.

His association with Vikram Bhatt, however, goes back to 2020, when Walia was in Delhi and regularly reached out to the filmmaker through his Instagram Live sessions. Bhatt eventually heard one of his original compositions and gave him his email address. When Walia moved to Mumbai later, he spent months visiting studios and production houses in search of work. He also spent time outside Bhatt’s office, where the filmmaker eventually recognised him from their earlier interaction.

In this exclusive conversation with Filmfare, Walia describes how he landed Haunted 3D, the struggle that preceded his entry into the industry, working with artists he had long admired and what he hopes to do next.

How did you land Haunted 3D?

This was back in 2020 when I was in Delhi. Vikram Bhatt used to come online for Instagram Live sessions. I regularly wrote in the comments that I wanted to sing one of my original compositions for him. One day, he was kind enough to let me join the Instagram Live, and I sang one of my songs to him.


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He really liked the songs and gave me his email ID. I stayed in touch with him until 2022. In 2022, I was in Mumbai, and I was hustling. I used to leave my house with a bag at around 11:30 every day and spend time outside studios and production houses. I also used to spend time outside Vikram sir’s office.

One day, he saw me and recognised me as the guy from the Instagram Live. He said he would definitely give me a chance and asked me to meet him after some time. After about eight or nine months, his elder son, who had become a friend of mine because I used to come to the studio every day, helped me get another meeting with him. At that point, Vikram sir was desperately looking for a song for Haunted.

Go on…

He called me for a listening session. He asked me to play three or four songs, and I sang and played a few songs for him. He liked all of them, but he wasn’t feeling them. He was stuck because he had a situation to shoot for and wasn’t getting the right song.

Fortunately, the last song I had to play for him was Aashiqui Mein, which made it to the film. We were in the lunch area of the shooting studio when I sang it. As soon as I started singing, everyone at the table started looking towards me. Vikram sir quietly got up, shook his head and went into the vanity. When he came back, he said, “Son, I’ve got my song. Give it to me. I have to shoot it.” There were some lyrical changes, and the song was shot a week later. This was back in 2023, and that’s how I landed my first song in Haunted 3D.


After that, as the film was being made, Vikram sir wanted songs for different situations. Fortunately, when I was in Delhi, I had been making songs for eight or nine years, so I had hundreds of songs in my bank. Some songs were already built, and some were kept aside. Songs that matched the emotional depth of the film existed. That’s how the sound of the film came to be.

Did any of the songs take an unexpected turn while you were making the album?

There’s a beautiful story behind the song Janmo Janam. Vikram sir lost his mother a couple of months before we were making the song. I had a song with different lyrics, but he said he had something to add to it and could write it differently. He poured all the pain he had into the song. The hook, “Janmo janam ka rishta humara, bichhde agar toh… toh phir aaunga,” I think he dedicated to his late mother. He wrote the lyrics in 45 minutes.


Besides Vikram Bhatt, were there other filmmakers or artists you tried to reach out to through social media?

I’ve reached out to a lot of artists on Instagram before. I had a song with T-Series, Hua Hai Aaj Pehli Baar, for which I sang an acoustic cover version in 2017. It trended across India and was among the top 50 videos on YouTube. I thought my life would change after that, so I tried to reach out to a lot of people. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. For many years, I tried to reach out to a lot of composers, but I couldn’t really get through to anyone. Then Mr Vikram Bhatt took me on Instagram Live. Before that, I hadn’t had a path-breaking conversation with anyone. No one had helped me that much. Tulsi Kumar has been really helpful to me. But, film music-wise, there wasn’t much she could do because she herself is a singer.



How did the struggle phase look for you before your work started getting recognition?

It was very dark. I had no contacts in Bollywood, and I come from a non-musical family. When I was in Delhi, I completed my law degree in 2019. I had planned to come to Mumbai in 2020, but then COVID happened. When I finally came to Mumbai in 2022, it was all about figuring out what to do and where to start.

I was staying at my real uncle’s place. Every day at 11:30, I would leave with a bag that had a speaker in it. I would go to Andheri or wherever there were studios and try to speak to people inside.

Whether it was an advertising studio, film studio, music production house, non-film production house, whatever it was, I would go there. I was so desperate to get work that I had even made an itinerary in June 2022. I recently came across it. I had written down the places I had visited and the places I wanted to visit.

When you know you have to leave the house but don’t have anywhere to go, and nobody has called you, it’s difficult. I also spoke to the guards outside the studios. Some were kind. They would tell me to wait and come back in the evening during their tea break. Some guards would chase me away. I have been through all of that.
In Delhi, I lived a very privileged life. So, all of this was very new to me. Nobody had spoken to me badly throughout my education. Suddenly, here I was reaching out to guards, receptionists and everyone who was simply doing their job. Obviously, they never had any ill intent. But it was difficult because sometimes people don’t treat you as a human being when you’re struggling or looking for work. It was a weird and bad time, but it shaped me into the person I am today.
If you could give any advice to the young Pratik who had just come to Bombay, what would you tell him?

Don’t give up. And have a reality check. An artist has to have a reality check. I completed my law degree and then came to Mumbai. I could have come three or four years earlier, but my education gave me a perspective in life. Law was never my Plan B. I never wanted to go back and pursue it. It was my mom who wanted me to be a lawyer. Parents are a little scared when you’re entering a field like this. They think, what will you do if you don’t make it?

So, that was the Plan B for them. But I never tell anyone to have a backup plan because that makes you weak.

But a lot of people try to make you understand the reality at that time. Their intentions aren’t wrong. The odds are very low in the industry that you’ll get a film or get to do a song in a film. So, they worry about you and tell you to stop. Sometimes, you get convinced. But you also have to have confidence in your art and conviction in what you’re doing.
When independent music started becoming popular and people started releasing their own songs, I already had hundreds of songs that I could have released. But I didn’t. I knew my songs had the potential to be in films. The way I structured my songs and built their stories, I was creating them without any narration. I was building a story in my mind and then building the song around it. I had conviction. I knew I could give these songs to films and that filmmakers would like them.
Who are some of the people in the industry you want to work with? Who is on your wish list?

The first is Mohit Suri. I’ve been a big fan of his films, and I still haven’t even got an opportunity to meet him. I’m already working with Omung Kumar and that was one dream I had.

I want to work with AR Rahman. I don’t know in what capacity, but I just want to be around him and see how he works. Even as a singer, if he thinks I’m fit, I would love to work with him. Besides these, working with SS Rajamouli is a dream I really want to pursue. I also want to work with Mukesh Bhatt sir because I love his sense of music and films, and Imtiaz Ali sir. Talking of singers, I want to work with Arijit Singh, Shreya Ghoshal and Tulsi Kumar.

What’s next for you?

I am working on Omung Kumar’s next film. I’m also doing a lot of independent collaborations with production houses. I’ve got several films and some independent releases coming up. So, at least for this year, there’s a lot of stuff to come.

Also Read: Mimoh Chakraborty On How Being In The Entertainment Industry Took A Toll On Him

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: filmfare.com

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