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The music of the legends is set to live on forever—and the use of their songs as re-creations is proof! This is the second part of our survey, restricted from 100-plus crore grossers to epics like Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar—The Revengethat have netted over eight times that figure in India alone!
The many kinds of re-creations done include straight versions (with lyrics unchanged and upbeat sound), songs where add-on lyrics in Hindi or English et al are added, old tracks that are seamlessly blended into new original creations and finally those where the original creations are incorporated only as samplers.
The Rohit Shetty connection:
Ace filmmaker Rohit Shetty also had a strong penchant for re-created songs in his films. He utilized Mithun Chakraborty’s image as a disco specialist and got him to play as a veteran dancer’s role in Golmaal 3 (2010), employing two compositions by Bappi Lahiri with lyrics by Anjaan. The first song, I am a disco dancer, was rendered by Bappi himself, while the latter was sung by Sudesh Bhosle. The re-creations were done by Amar Mohile. Both the songs are cult numbers from Mithun’s 1982 blockbuster, Disco Dancer.
Shetty’s passing favorite also seemed to be Kalyanji’s son, Viju Shah. In Simmba, Viju’s Aankh maare from his 1996 Tere Mere Sapne was re-created by Tanishk Bagchi with add-on lyrics for this cult Anand Bakshi hit by Shabbir Ahmed. In a quirky move, we even had a character announce the name of the original singer Kumar Sanu, for a line lip-synched in the new film by the original actor, Arshad Warsi!
Shetty repeated this with Akshay Kumar getting to re-enact his 1994 Mohra hit Tip tip barsa pani (Viju Shah-Anand Bakshi again) as well as Aila re aila from Akshay’s Khatta Meetha (2010 / Pritam–Nitin Raikwar) in Sooryavanshi. The latter song had additional lyrics by Shabbir Ahmed and both were songs re-created by Bagchi from the original composition.
This 2010 film remains the chronologically latest music score from which a re-creation has been done later!
But the standout creation in Sooryavanshi was Usha Khanna-Prem Dhawan’s title-track from the 1960 Hum Hindustani. Redone by Bagchi again, it was filmed uniquely in the pre-climax and rendered by multiple artistes. Some additional lyrics were also written but remained uncredited.
Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s three hits:
In Baaghi 2 (2018), the all-time hit, Ek do teen char from the 1988 Tezaab, composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal and written by Javed Akhtar, was re-created by Sandeep Shirodkar.
Bhoot raja bahar aaja was a song taken from Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s and Anand Bakshi’s 1977 film Chacha Bhatijaand recreated as The Bhoot Song in the 2019 film, Housefull 4. It was recreated by Farhad Samji and Shirodkar. The add-on lyrics were written by Samji with Vayu. Samji was also the writer and director of the film.
In Total Dhamaal in the same year, another Laxmikant-Pyarelal-Anand Bakshi delight, Paisa yeh paisa from Karz(1980) was redone by Gourov-Roshin with add-on lyrics by Kunwar Juneja.
Unique indeed:
Rakesh Roshan, in the 2017 Kaabil, gave the same team of Gourov-Roshin a unique assignment—to re-create and provide new modern beats to his brother Rajesh Roshan’s original melodies from Julie (1975) and Yaarana (1981)—Dil kya kare (penned by Anand Bakshi) and Saara zamana haseenon ka deewana (by Anjaan), respectivelyaabil. Kaabil had its remaining original songs created by Rajesh Roshan himself! In fact, in the latter song, there was a gender-flip: the song ‘changed’ into a female song, though the original Yaarana super-hit remains one of Amitabh Bachchan’s most iconic dance numbers!
And then there were more:
Ram Sampath musically re-created Kalyanji-Anandji’s Laila o Laila in Raees, originally written by Indeevar for the 1980 Qurbani. Javed Akhtar penned additional words.
The Bappi Lahiri-Indeevar duo’s Tama tama loge from Thanedaar (1990)—also sung by Bappi with Anuradha Paudwal—got reincarnated as Tamma tamma again in Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017) with Bagchi re-creating the song and even using Ameen Sayani’s cult voice (besides those of the two singers) as samplers. The new add-on lyrics, including Rap, were by Badshah.
In the same film, the title-song, Badri ki dulhaniya, had additional lyrics by Shabbir Ahmed, with rap lyrics by Ikka, and was again re-created by Bagchi. It was in essence a rework of Chalat musafir written by Shailendra (also the film’s producer) and tuned by Shankar-Jaikishan for Teesri Kasam (1966).
However, over here, it can be said that it was Shailendra and S-J who were the original ‘re-creators’ as the actual original was a folk melody from Uttar Pradesh. This melody has also been used not once but twice in non-film Mata Bhents by the late Narendra Chanchal!
Pritam, of course, deserves the tag of a legend more than anyone else from the millennium. His 2007 Bhool Bhulaiyaacreation (with Sameer), Ami je tomar was redone by Amaal Mallik in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 (2024) and the older film’s title-track by Bagchi with lyrics by Dhrruv Yogi with some English verse composed and penned by American rapper Pitbull!
And finally, Uttam Singh-Anand Bakshi have created two perennially cult tracks in Gadar—Ek Prem Katha (2001): Main nikla gaddi lekar and Udd jaa kaale kaawan in. Mithoon re-furbished them in Gadar 2 to become, Border 2fashion, the only hits from the new album!
Future perfect?:
Clearly, the works of the legends will never fade, and the new sound and upbeat production and visuals make the re-creations get views in phenomenal multiples of the originals! As one of the legends has admitted to me, “They not only keep great melody and meaningful lyrics alive, but increase the love and respect for our work among GenZee!”
Provided the credits are prominently displayed, of course!
