Chhaayaageet #122 - "Let the girl continue to sing. Make it a duet."
The filmmaker is explaining the situation of the song to her father who is also the lyricist for the film. The actors are supposed to walk in on a local group of musicians singing and dancing. One of the girls starts off the song in her native language, and then they take over in Hindi. The lyricist has a different thought. He suggests to let the girl keep singing. Let them all sing. Make it a duet, he says.
This is the only song in the film that is a lip sync song. All the other songs play in the background. That makes this song a little unique. The filmmaker has an idea and she explains it to the music composers.
The actors are called to the studio one by one on different days. One of them comes over to the studio and is told to sing. He is shocked.
“I have never done anything like this before. How can you just ask me to do this?”, he registers a strong complaint.
“Don’t worry. Let’s just do a rough take, just for our reference, and then we’ll do the real take some other day”, the composer tries to pacify him.
They record him singing. When the actor listens to himself sing, he bursts out into laughter.
“Nice, huh?”, the composer asks him.
“Noooo, I hate it”, the actor can’t believe anybody likes his singing. “My voice breaks yaar”, he tries again.
“Heh, you are just getting freaked out. It’s not that bad. We can tweak it and make you sound wonderful”, the composer assures him. The actor is not convinced anybody can make him sound wonderful, but with a sigh, he gives in.
Next, the composers call the second actor.
“Aa jao bas. Gaane ko sun lo”, they tell him over the phone. Just come. Listen to the song.
When the actor shows up in the music room, they have him listen to the tune. Then they give him a mic in his hand.
"Gaa ke dekh", the composer tells him. See if you can sing it.
"Arre I am not trained for this. I have not done any rehearsal. Aisa thodi hota hai", he also complains. This is not how it is done.
In five minutes, the actor finds himself inside the recording booth in front of the mic. From behind the glass the composer teaches him to hold the proper note. In no time, his section of the song is recorded.
Fast forward to the shoot.
The shoot is to take place in a small town. They have not been exposed to anything like this before. There is palpable excitement in the town folk that a film song is to be shot there. The place bears a festive look. New paint on the walls. Lots of lights, and lanterns and other decorations are put up everywhere by the crew. A new promenade has been set up with stalls and what not.
The shoot is going to involve lot of extra dancers. Their costumes have all been designed and stitched in Bombay and shipped to the town. That being said, every garment has been researched, thought about and planned in the town to give it the local touch of authenticity that it needs.
The crew has barely 7 nights to shoot the entire song. Rain throws a wrench in the works. Luckily the set and all the decorative elements put up by the crew hold up despite the rain.
Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan and Abhay Deol sang in their own voices for the song Señorita in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011), directed by Zoya Akhtar, lyrics by Javed Akhtar, and music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. The Spanish vocals were voiced by Maria Del Mar Fernandez, a Spanish flamenco singer and Carlyta Mouhini.
The song was filmed in the Spanish town of Alájar, Andalucia. The song and music required flamenco style of dance, which the choreographer duo of Bosco-Caesar was unfamiliar with. They had to do a good bit of research to compose the dance.
Javed Akhtar suggested to let the Spanish lyrics be mixed in with the Hindi lyrics, creating a unique fusion and appeal for the song.
The soundtrack of the film was extremely well received. The perfect combination of Hindustani classical and Spanish sounds was highly acclaimed. The film also performed extremely well at the box office. The film won the Filmfare awards for Best Film, Best Director (Zoya Akhtar), Best Supporting Actor (Farhan Akhtar), Best Dialogue (Farhan Akhtar), Best Cinematographer (Carlos Catalan) and Best Choreography (Bosco-Caesar for Señorita). Javed Akhtar earned a nomination for Best Lyricist for Señorita.
Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Singers: Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Maria del Mar Fernandez, Carlyta Mouhini
*ing: Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol
Choreography: Bosco-Caesar
Director: Zoya Akhtar
Film: Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011)