"If a song doesn't give me goosebumps, why should it move anyone else?": Anand Raj Anand on the making of a timeless track

For composer Anand Raj Anand, there's no formula for a song that lasts. Ask him what separates a hit that fades from one that stays with people for years, and he doesn't pause to think. His answer is simple: emotion.

Music, he says, can't be produced on demand just to satisfy a producer's brief or beat a release deadline. "The first listener is always the composer himself," he explains. "If I don't get goosebumps while creating a song, why should the audience expect to feel anything?"

That belief shaped how he worked throughout his career-even after a track had already been signed off. "Many times I'd call up after a song was locked and say, 'Sir, I've composed another one. Please hear it once.' I always felt there was room to make something better," he recalls.

It's this restlessness that Anand feels is missing from parts of today's music industry, where he says speed often wins out over sincerity. "People celebrate the moment a song gets approved. I only celebrated once listeners embraced it."

To Anand, a song's real test isn't the box office-it's whether it outlives the film. "A song should comfort someone, make someone cry, or make them dance. It has to leave behind an emotional imprint," he says.

Decades into his career, that philosophy hasn't shifted. "Music direction was never about impressing the people making the film. It's about touching the people watching it."

He's convinced that songs which stand the test of time are never accidents. "They happen when every note carries honesty. Audiences forget films, but they never forget how a song made them feel. That's the responsibility every composer has to carry."