Dhrubajyoti Phukan

Dhrubajyoti Phukan (Assamese: ধ্ৰুৱজ্যোতি ফুকন) is a National Film Award winning musician who has worked as a Music Producer, Music Arranger and Music Programmer in Hindi Films. Widely known as DJ Phukan, he has also worked as a music director for several films.

Early life

Dhrubajyoti Phukan was born on June 17, 1964 in Dibrugarh, Assam. His father Atulananda Phukan is a civil engineer who has worked for PWD in Assam and Meghalaya. His mother Amiya Phukan is a housewife. Phukan derived inspiration from the musical atmosphere at home – both his mother and his maternal grandfather, late Khagen Gogoi, sang as a hobby. As a child, he learnt to play tabla from Phatik Tamuli and Dilipranjan Borthakur, and Hawaiian guitar from Hema Hazarika.

He schooled at the Moran Higher Secondary School. Thereafter, he took admission in Cotton College, Guwahati, but later shifted to Arya Vidyapeeth College, Guwahati.

The young Phukan displayed myriad interests – ranging from quantum physics, to car sports to spiritualism to Mechanical Engineering, especially Automobile Engineering. After graduating in Mechanical Engineering from Assam Engineering College, Phukan worked for two years as a Project Engineer at Ducons, a local engineering firm in Guwahati. He also did a year-long stint as a lecturer at the Assam Engineering Institute, Guwahati.

Musical beginnings

Music was a hobby that developed into a passion and then a profession for Phukan. He began his career in music in the year 1989 as a session musician and musical arranger in Guwahati. He assisted Bhupen Uzir, an eminent music director from Assam and this laid the bedrock for his music career. He also assisted and worked as a music arranger for Sher Choudhuri, another great Assamese music director in several films. He arranged music for several albums and films in Assam.

Phukan was tremendously inspired by legendary composers like RD Burman and Ilaiyaraaja, but one album in particular, Shiv-Hari's 1981 soundtrack for Silsila, propelled him towards music arrangement. Phukan found arranging music fascinating and started learning it on his own. As of computer music, there was no institute teaching this subject at that time, he presciently foresaw the rising importance of computer music, and he trained himself in the many facets.

Music arranger

Within a few years, Phukan had become successful as a music arranger in Assam, and his workload increased exponentially. This necessitated the decision to leave his engineering career and concentrate fully on music. In 1993, he came to Mumbai for a dubbing-related job and met fledgling music director Anand Raj Anand, who was also looking for opportunities in Bollywood; and this was the beginning of a new collaboration. Once Anand Raj Anand started getting offers as a music composer in Hindi films, he called Phukan to Mumbai in 1995 and asked him to arrange the music for his film Bandhan, This was Phukan's first breakthrough in Bollywood as a music arranger. In 1996, Phukan permanently shifted to Mumbai and started working as a music producer, music arranger and music programmer.

His highly creative efforts quickly won him the tag of DJ Phukan. He attained widespread recognition in particular for his tracks ‘Mahi ve’ and ‘Ishq samundar’ for the 2002 film Kaante, for which he was credited as Music Producer/Programmer and Music Production Supervisor.

Subsequently, Phukan has also worked with almost all of B-town's renowned music directors like Pritam, Jeet Ganguly, Ankit Tiwari, Jatin–Lalit, Nadeem–Shravan, Anand–Milind, Meet Bros, Anand Raj Anand, Raamlaxman, Sajid–Wajid, Sandesh Shandilya, Salim–Sulaiman and MM Kreem.

Phukan has also arranged the music for many non-film albums of successful singers like Jaspinder Narula, Hema Sardesai, Kamal Khan, Suneeta Rao, Vibha Sharma, Prity- Pinky, Meet Bros.

Association With Pritam

Phukan's collaboration for music director Pritam became very much successful, with Gangtser (2006). A string of musical hits like Life In a Metro, Dhoom 2, Jab We Met, Dhoom 3, Love Aaj Kal, Barfi!, Cocktail, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani has followed. Since 2007, Phukan works as the chief of Pritam's Music Production/Arrangement/Programming team.

Background music composer

Starting with Pardesi Babu in 1998, Phukan has also composed the background score for several films including Chura Liyaa Hai Tumne (2003) and Janasheen (2003).

Composing career

In 2012, Phukan won the 59th National Film Awards as the best Music Director for his music in the Hindi short film Panchakki. It capped an intermittent but creatively fecund career as a music director which began with the Raveena Tandon production Stumped in 2003. Recently, he also composed for renowned director Jahnu Barua's films Baandhon and Ajeyo, both of which bagged the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Assamese.

Personal life

Dhrubajyoti Phukan married singer Shaswati Phukan in 1991, and is the father of a daughter, Shreya Phukan, and a son, Ayushjyoti Phukan.

Selective discography as music arranger

Filmography

As background music composer

As music director

Honours

Awards