MUMBAI: Hindi Film Industry is breaking shackles when it comes to telling new stories. Be it Gully Boy, Uri or Raazi. However, Hindi Film music’s spool seems to be stuck. The status was initially ‘present’, which has been currently converted to omnipresent.

We remember the disastrous attempt of music composers of remixing an iconic song, Dum Maro Dum, featuring Deepika Padukone. However, during those days, remixes was a once in a blue moon thing, but by the time 2019 came, almost every film has at least one recreated song. 2018 ended with hit song Aankh Marey, which is the recreated version of 90’song with the same title and from the film, Tere Mere Sapne starring Arshad Warsi. The remixed version featured Sarah Ali Khan and Ranveer Singh. The song has garnered over 530 million views on YouTube as of now.

Composer Rochak Kohli, who has successfully recreated many iconic songs, explains the reason for a slew of remixes, “The main consumption of music is by youth. The young generation, today, doesn’t even listen to the whole album, but goes for just one track. All OTT platforms are the point of access. Therefore, a lot depends on that one track. This is one of the reasons, why five out of ten tracks are remixes these days. Sometimes it’s a miss as it is overdone.”

Singer Jonita Gandhi also shares her insight, “It is capitalizing on connect the audience has with the iconic songs, which people will never forget. In a way, they are reviving it for youth as many youngsters might not have heard the originals. The remixes are nothing but representatives of these melodies, therefore, it would be great if they can go and hear the originals. This will help them understand, how the melody was initially intended to be heard.”

One of the flag bearers of remixes, today, is Tanshik Bagchi, who has composed songs like Ek Do Teen, Tu Cheez Badi Hain Mast Mast, and Tamma Tamma. While some of them worked, many of them received flak, especially Ek Do Teen that received maximum criticism. At the same time, Tamma Tamma from Badrinath Ki Dulhania remixed by Tanishk was loved immensely. Hence, what may click with the audience and what may not is a big question.

Singer Aman Trikha also says, “This is a trend, we can't do anything about and it isn’t going anywhere soon as the audience is loving it. The original songs are already huge and when remixes of these blockbuster numbers are presented by big stars, they become hit. The production houses hammer the songs in a big way and that’s how remixes work.”

As easy it is for the audience to discard or love the remix, it is equally difficult for a composer or a singer to recreate it.  Explaining this, Rochak adds, “For me as a composer, recreations are far more difficult as I have lots to live up to. There is a lot of baggage ofthe superhit song.  The original is always going to be there but there is a certain section of audience that hasn’t been exposed to it due to many factors and just have heard about them. Therefore, the song has to live up to the hype."

Aman also further adds, “As an artist, if I am ever offered to sing a old melody that is being remixed, I will do it because that is my job.”

There is no denying that remixes are the current fascination of Bollywood, but the audience has been stark in their response and has favored only the good ones. Before this remix frenzy, the music launch of a film was much awaited and all the songs were original. Gradually, one odd song was a recreated version. Now, the question arises that if there is seriously a lack of originality?

On this, Aman comments, “Slowly and surely it is changing. You can't say there is no originality at all. We just had a completely original film album with Kalank and now we have a film album like Bharat that promises to be an original aone.”