Pritam Chakraborty, also known as Pritam, is an Indian music composer, record producer and music director for Bollywood films. He is most widely known for his work as a composer in Barfi (2012), Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013), Dilwale (2015), and Dangal (2016).

Early Life

Born in a Bengali family to Anuradha Chakraborty and Prabodh Chakraborty, Pritam was trained in music by his father, a radio artist who also ran a music school in Kolkata. He learned to play the guitar while he was still in school. While in college, Pritam formed a band with his Presidency batchmates, called "Jotugriher Pakhi" for which, he used to play the guitar. They even have a cassette released to their credit at that time. Later, Pritam joined a Bangla band, Chandrabindoo. After getting his Bachelors` degree, Pritam joined FTII, Pune where he took up Sound Recording and Engineering in 1994. During this time, he was offered a chance to compose background music for a film by the Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Gaal.

Music Career

Pritam moved to Mumbai in 1997. He started composing ad jingles where he met other budding artists such as Shantanu Moitra, Rajkumar Hirani, Sanjay Gadhvi and Jeet Gannguli. Pritam composed renowned jingles for brands like Santro, Emami, McDonald`s, Head & Shoulders, Thums Up, Limca, Complan and composed title tracks for TV serials such as Astitva, Kkavyanjali, Ye Meri Life Hai, Remix, Kashmeer, Miilee, and Dil Kya Kare.

Pritam got his first break for Tere Liye (2001). Though the film missed the mark, his music was well received. In 2002, The Jeet-Pritam duo once again composed music for Yash Raj Films` Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai. All the songs from that movie were chart-busters. Pritam built a name for his compositions by finely blending Indian classical music with western influences. His composition for Gadhvi`s second movie Dhoom (2004) was a runaway hit. He received two nominations for Dhoom. He followed this up with compositions for films like Gangster and Dhoom 2 (2006). His compositions for Anurag Basu`s Life in a... Metro garnered him very positive reviews. He formed a band called Metro with Suhail Kaul, Soham Chakraborty, Eric Pillai and a Bangladeshi singer, James, for the movie.

He won his second Zee Cine Award for Best Track of the Year for the song "Mauja hi Mauja" from Jab We Met by Imtiaz Ali (2007). Jab We Met won him his first Apsara Award for Best Music Director. He composed for two more Imtiaz Ali films, Love Aaj Kal (2009) and Cocktail (2012) which were critically and commercially successful and gave him many awards and nominations. His Sufi songs for the 2010 movie Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai were immensely popular with the masses and songs like "Pee loon" and "Tum Jo Aaye" were declared chartbusters. He teamed up again with Mahesh Bhatt and Vishesh Films for the music of Crook of which the song "Mere Bina" got instant recognition with the public. His foot-tapping numbers for Rohit Shetty`s Golmaal 3 were also equally successful.

In 2011, he got to work for Salman Khan`s Ready and Bodyguard. He recreated the famous 1971 song, "Dum Maro Dum" for Ramesh Sippy`s 2011 movie of the same name. He then composed the music for the romance Mausam (2011) which was strongly influenced by Punjabi music. The songs were phenomenal hits in Northern India with "Rabba Main To Mar Gaya Oye" being a rage among people. In 2012, he composed several successful songs for films like Players, Agent Vinod, Jannat 2 and Vidhu Vinod Chopra`s Ferrari Ki Sawaari, where he finally got to work with him and Rajkumar Hirani. Later that year, he scored music for Barfi which won him two Filmfare Awards. By 2013, his list included Race 2, Murder 3, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, Dhoom 3 and Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai Dobaara which was his 100th movie as a Music Director in Bollywood. He started 2014 with compositions for Yaariyan, Shaadi Ke Side Effects & Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty. He then took a break in 2014. He marked his return with three successful albums in 2015: Kabir Khan`s Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Phantom, and Rohit Shetty`s Dilwale for which he was nominated for the Filmfare awards.

In 2016, he appeared as a guest composer & composed the song "Itni Si Baat Hai" for Azhar while the other composer of that album was Amaal Mallik & DJ Chetas. He also composed the whole soundtrack of Dishoom, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil & Dangal. In 2017, he composed the soundtrack of Jagga Jasoos, Raabta along with Sohrabuddin, Sourav Roy & JAM8, Tubelight and Jab Harry Met Sejal along with Diplo. In 2018, he composed the soundtrack of Race 3 along with Meet Bros, Vishal Mishra and JAM8. His 2019 releases include Brahmastra, Kalank, Chhichhore and The Sky Is Pink. His 2020 release include Love Aaj Kal, directed by Imtiaz Ali.