How did you become music directors?
Sulaiman: Our dad SL Merchant has composed music for Telugu and Hindi films, but quit the film industry in 1962. He then started manufacturing musical instruments, so we had instruments as toys early on in life. He would also import and sell imported instruments and was known to every musician in the city of Mumbai. Our original surname was Molddina, as we were Ismaili Muslims, but later my uncle moved to Australia and changed his surname to Merchant. Merchant literally means trader and my dad, who was also trading at that time, followed suit and came to be popularly known as Merchant sahab. So we would tag along with him when he went to deliver instruments and have childhood memories of Pyarelal bhai directing. Our father played 11 instruments.
We both learnt Hindustani classical music and, while I learnt the drums, Salim learnt the keyboard. When I was about 16, we started producing music and gradually, started composing for jingles and documentaries and started doing pop albums.
More There is no one like Sukhwinder Singh: Salim – The Times of India.
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Ismailimail 