GUWAHATI: Tony Deori Basumatary is a film score producer from Assam, settled in Mumbai. Known for his works in Bollywood as well as regional films, Tony made national headlines recently upon winning the ‘Best Background Music Award’ at the Filmfare (Marathi) Awards this year. With this award, Tony has been able to proudly represent Assam nationally and he considers it one of the biggest achievements in his journey as a musician so far.
Born and brought up mostly in Guwahati, Tony has lived and studied in various parts of the state due to the transferable nature of his parents’ jobs. While he’s lived in Tezpur, North Lakhimpur, Biswanath Chariali, Tangla and Udalguri, a major part of his schooling was done in Tezpur and North Lakhimpur. For further studies, Tony moved back to Guwahati and then moved to Mumbai where he started working in the film and television industry as a music producer.
Tony developed an interest in the field of music during his school days, playing in the school band along with his close friends. Having moved to Mumbai in 2004, Tony started off as a music producer/arranger in the same year, working in collaboration with a friend.
In 2008, he started working with Utkarsh, who’s been his partner all these years. Together they’ve worked on quite a few projects for TV as well as films including Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017), Dangal (2016), Bhale Manchi Roju (2015), Baji (2015) and Pune-52 (2013). They’ve also worked with singer and composer Pritam as music arrangers.
Speaking to G Plus about his experience of working in the award winning film Lapachhapi, Tony expressed, “Working on Lapachhapi was a great experience, especially because of the people involved. Director Vishal Furia and producer Jitendra Patil were amazing support systems and like the best people to work with. Since we have worked with Vishal previously as well, we shared a common zeal for the film. He gave us the freedom to do what we wanted to.”
He further added that working in the Marathi film industry being a non Marathi was an overwhelming experience because of how welcome the team felt. The support and encouragement was immense, he said.
Presently, the team is working on an upcoming project which is Kenny Basumatary’s “Suspended Inspector Boro.” While Utkarsh, along with guitarist Derrick, is working on the music, Tony is working on the sound for Kenny’s next film. He is also working on making music for an album which is still in its initial stages. Tony plans to collaborate with other upcoming artists from Assam and other parts of northeast for this project.
Additionally, Tony runs ‘Heavy Budget’ - a comedy YouTube channel that he started with his cousin Bonny about 4 months ago. Speaking to G Plus about the idea behind the YouTube channel, he said, “We wanted to make short funny sketches that we thought our viewers might enjoy watching and we would enjoy making. So far, the response has been huge and positive, giving us the energy to keep producing content. The name, Heavy Budget, is a sarcastic take on how we barely have any budget to spend on the videos. We do the best we can with what we have and eventually hope to change that.”
Tony expressed his excitement about the current scenario of the Assamese music industry. He believes that there’s a lot of untapped talent in the region, not just in the field of music but in all spheres. He said, “There was a wave of not so good music, to put it mildly, from Assam in the recent years. But I think that is slowly, but definitely fading out. The new generation of musicians is more aware, has a better world view and is up to date, so I believe the Assamese music industry is heading in the right direction.”
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He believes that with the kind of music being produced in Assam and other Northeastern states, especially the traditional and folk music, we sure have the potential to go global. “People outside India, and in many cases within India, are virtually not well acquainted with our music. Be it dance or soul, there’s potentially a wide range of unheard music that we can offer to worldwide listeners. Not just the folk and traditional music, there’s contemporary modern music too,” Tony told G Plus.