Salim Merchant

Salim Merchant is best known for being one half of the highly successful composing duo Salim-Sulaiman along with his brother. The pair have won multiple awards for their work and are particularly acclaimed for their many Hindi film soundtracks—since 1997, they have provided the songs and/or score for well over 100 films and shows. In the west, they are perhaps best known for their Bollywood remixes of Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ and ‘Judas’, their score for the 2014 drama film Sold, and their Daytime Emmy-nominated theme tune for the childrens’ series Wonder Pets. In their native India, Salim gained extra solo exposure as a judge on both Indian Idol and The Voice India. He is particularly popular on social media with 1.1 million followers on Instagram and 1.6 on Twitter.

Salim Merchant is the younger brother and was born in Mumbai in 1974. He took classical piano training in London at the prestigious Trinity College of Music before returning to India to begin composing with his older brother, Sulaiman, who had been studying tabla. In 2003, they got their first major breakthrough, winning acclaim for their soundtrack to the supernatural horror film Bhoot. The score won them their first award, the 2003 Star Screen Award for Best Background Score. They won the same award the following year for the action thriller film Dhoom.

Since then, the brothers have won all kinds of award from Best Indie Song at the Mirchi Music Awards to Best Dressed Composers at the FHM Awards. Merchant the younger’s expertise have also been sought as a judge and mentor on popular Indian reality contest shows.