Nab the melody!

Savan Kotecha

In the midst of our conversation, Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter Savan Kotecha says the Academy Awards' team has been treating his property like a "war-zone". "There's a media tent, a satellite truck and security people all over," he says, his delight evident behind his feigned complaint.

Kotecha finds himself contending for the Best Original Song title for Husavik, the power-ballad that culminated Netflix's Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. Kotecha, who was working on Charlie's Angels when a friend called to inquire if he knew "anyone who would be interested in the project", practically grabbed the opportunity. Better known for his work in America, where he has worked on creating chart-busters like Love me like you do, Obvious (Westlife) and DJ got us falling in love, apart from playing a vital role in the making of One Direction, Kotecha was, however, familiar with the demands of Eurovision, owing to his time spent in Sweden.

"When making a song for a big American artiste, you have to think of cooler things. One must stick to a box and consider what will work on the radio. Here, you're not worried about being cool. The melody needs to be bigger. A lot of the [music] is minimal, including the hip-hop tracks. Also, in this film, I wasn't conversing with an artiste. I was talking to characters, via the script."

Kotecha traces his journey in the industry to the time when the Backstreet Boys were not famous. A record company owner, who had then signed on the "new band", had approached Kotecha for his skills. When he expressed his desire to be like them, instead of work behind the scenes, he was reminded of how "no girl in Wisconsin will put [the poster] of an Indian guy on her wall". Kotecha's response was a simple, "Okay." Thereafter, he began to work as a songwriter, penning tracks that are, today, on everyone's lips. But whether he worked for the two-decade old Westlife, or young pop artistes like Ariana Grande, he says he has been favoured by his focus on melody. "A great melody, no matter what genre it has been made for, will succeed. If you can master creating melodies, you can survive genre shifts." Meanwhile, a comedy on the story of his South Asian boy band is in the works with Universal Pictures.