Mumbai: The name Daniel B George may not be a familiar one but those in the business of music know him well.

If the sound of Johnny Gaddar transported you to 70's Bollywood, then credit goes to him.

Daniel composed the background music for the film and it worked out so well that he ended up composing three songs as well, which were later inserted into the album.

At an average, composing a film's background score takes 10-12 days, yet Daniel spent almost 2 months on it, playing every instrument live. The hard work has evidently yielded results.

"Post Johnny Gaddar there are so many people coming to me with offers. They just take it granted that I will do the same magic like I did it for Johnny Gaddar saying ‘Give me stipulated time and money and say you will do it for us’. But I kept on refusing offers,” says George.

He’s refusing offers because he is no hurry to make money. He started out by doing arrangements for music composer Shantanu Moitra and got noticed with his work in Parineeta.

The period sound and the flavour of Kolkata all blended seamlessly. In fact, George has worked closely with Moitra on his every soundtrack, starting with the haunting score of Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi.

“Baawra mann from Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi is a seven-mantra song and the tabla comes at 3/4th of the song. It’s just a pulse and the tension builds up. It’s the genius of Danny because he thinks so non-linear,” says Moitra.

The thing that has worked in Danny's favour is that he has musical experience of every kind.

In Delhi, he played with a band, went on to compose radio and TV jingles and then on landing up in Mumbai, composed title tracks for several soaps before working in films.

“The band music on stage is loud, TV music has to tell something and describe something. Film music is large and kind of keeps you captive in a hall. But all three mediums feed off each other. You cannot isolate them and say this is dedicated to this particular sound,” says George.

As is true of so many talented artistes before him, George’s family wasn't too thrilled with his career choice initially.

“I come from a family where medical is termed as very noble and right. We are four boy cousins and I am the youngest. Three of them are good medical doctors and I am the only one left out. I took on music. They didn’t take it very well. It’s only now that they see me here and there, on portals and news, that they think okay, somehow he took a journey which is not bad,” he says.

He's a man who wears many hats. As an independent composer, he worked on the Arshad Warsi-starrer Sehar, but the music, like the film, went unnoticed.

Coming up next, he's composed the background score for Sudhir Mishra's Khoya Khoya Chand, Shashank Ghosh's Quickgun Murugun and Sriram Raghavan's next.

Despite no formal training in music, George has come a long way, and for that he thanks the Lord.

Every Sunday, work takes a backseat as he spends virtually the entire day playing the piano at church.