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Sometime around a decade back, our own desi guys got who was probably the biggest pop artists of the time to India, and recorded two brilliant songs. This is the story of @VishalDadlani and @ShekharRavjiani collaborating with @Akon for @anubhavsinha’s Ra One. (1/11)
While there have been many instances of international stars singing for Indian films - Snoop Dogg for Singh Is Kinng, Kylie Minogue for Blue, Diplo for Jab Harry Met Sejal etc. - my favorite remains Akon for Ra. One as he made the effort to sing the Hindi lines too. (2/11)
The story goes that when Vishal and Shekhar were sitting with Anubhav Sinha, showing him what they had composed, Anubhav asked them who they thought could sing the song ‘Criminal’, and Vishal very as a matter of factly said Akon could sing it. (3/11)
Unbeknownst to VS, Shah Rukh Khan met Akon in New York, and asked him if he would like to sing for an Indian film, and he agreed. So SRK told VS this and Akon was booked for two days - given he had to learn the tune, the Hindi lyrics etc. (4/11)
However, Akon turned out to be a quick learner, and the recording for Criminal was done on the first day itself. Later that day, the composers, their producer Abhijit, Akon, and his producer Giorgio Tuinfort were all jamming, when they came up with a peppy beat. (5/11)
Being PanchamDa fans, Vishal and Shekhar started to sing “Dil Lena Khel Hai” on that beat, and it fit, and they all loved it. Earlier that day, Anubhav Sinha had told VS that the term Chammak Challo had never been used in the hook, and they should think about it some time. (6/11)
In as little time as between that night and the next evening, the lyrics were written (by Vishal and Niranjan Iyengar, I suppose), the tune was composed, the song was recorded and the final mixing was done. All in a day’s time. And that’s the Chammak Challo we know. (7/11)
Here’s a screengrab I took from the video of the making of this song - it has the lyrics of the song how Akon heard and understood the words. I love the spelling of Nach though. (8/11)
The funny thing is, that Akon actually took the song in his hard drive and went back. Which VS realized only when they invited SRK and Anubhav to listen to it. But calls were made and the song was brought back. (9/11)
And that’s how we have two Akon songs in a soundtrack that has one of my absolute favorite songs from the 201x decade, Bhare Naina by Nandini Srikar; and also a beautiful love song by Shafqat Amanat Ali, Dildara. (10/11)
As for the term Chammak Challo, not sure if this song is where he got the idea, but Faaiz Anwar wrote a song called Chammak Challo Chhel Chhabeli composed by Sajid-Wajid for Rowdy Rathore (2012), a song that marked Kumar Sanu’s comeback to Hindi playback. (11/11)
