The association of the music director and the lyricist happened quite serendipitously, when Swanand was assisting Sudhir Mishra on Hazaron Khwahishein Aisi, and has now come full circle with Mishra's ode to the golden age of Bollywood, Khoya Khoya Chand.

The modest Shantanu is still coming to grips with the demand for his talent.

"What comes at the top of my mind is that we didn't know about this, that one day we will be doing films - big films - with names on hoardings. That was not the vision," he says.

He adds that he wanted to do something else in life. "And I guess he (Swanand) wanted to do something else in life. So, we believe that there was this higher force which put us at a crossroads.

Swanand Kirkire adds, "It clicked with me and Shantanu. It's always clicked, but it has clicked with others also, like the producers, directors who are approaching us. They see the chemistry between us, which is favourable for them."

One of their current projects, Sudhir Mishra's Khoya Khoya Chand has proved to be a challenge. Set in 50's and 60's Bollywood, there were reference points for the music of the film. But the difficult part was to create the sound of that era.

"The key word for this soundtrack is that it is celebration of cinema. And when we think of celebration, we have been programmed (to think) 130 beats per minute," says Shantanu. "This is not that. There are 130 beats per minute, but it has other beats too," he adds.

The soundtrack has a vast range, with numbers from almost all possible musical genres in Bollywood, from cabaret to qawwali. Swanand has even lent his voice for the title track.

"We are watching a different self of us," says Swanand. "We didn't know that this (kind of a song) was existing in me."

The versatile duo are doing the songs for Shyam Benegal's Mahadev and are also cutting a private album.