Way back when the film industry was in the cradle, the actors and actresses were made to sing playback for themselves. So it was necessary for a filmstar to be an all-rounder i.e, in action, singing, dialogues,etc. Some of the stars like Ashok Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Geeta Dutt managed to do it. But this system demotivated the actors who were bad at singing and singers who were bad at acting.
It was some years later that playback singing created it’s own place in the industry making big singing stars like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosale, Suman Kalyanpurkar, etc. The bollywood industry began creating wonders with the best compositions which are and will be everlasting. Composers like Madan-Mohan, R.D Burman, Kalyanji-Anandji,etc, Lyricists like Gulzar, Sahir Ludhianvi, etc and ofcourse all the amusing vocals are the true legends behind those.
As the years passed, winds stretched the remix fever all over the country. Westernisation indeed entered the music industry. People loved this change and so their interests did. It was all fun until the songs created using this westernisation were pure and original.
What kind of creativity should we call this that the old songs are picked up, some unwanted additions are made and a new song bangs the listeners, called remix version or unplugged version..! In fact the original songs are undervalued because of this. The strange part being acceptance of these songs on a very wider base..!!
These so called unplugged or remix versions become an opportunity for the fresh singers to enter Bollywood. If asked, these remix composers and directors answer that their creativity is inspired from so and so tune, which marks the original. May be they are unaware of the difference existing between inspiration and pilfery..!!
Long live the CREATIVITY and so do the ORIGINALITY..!!
List of some songs remixed :
1. Lag ja gale
Original : Singer- Lata Mangeshkar, Music Director- Madan Mohan, Lyrics – Raja Mehndi Ali Khan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFr6G5zveS8
Remix : Singer – Jonita Gandhi, Song recreated By : Rana Mazumder
2. Khoya Khoya Chand
Original: Singer- Mohammed Rafi, Lyricist – Shailendra, Music Director- S D Burman
Remix : Suman Shridhar
3. Disco Deewane
Original : Singer – Shaan & Sagarika , Music – Biddu , Lyrics – Anwar Khan
Remix : Singer – Benny Dayal, Sunidhi Chauhan & Nazia Hassan, Composer – Vishal & Shekhar , Lyricist – Anvita Dutt
4. Hawa Hawai
Original : Singer- Kavita Krishnamurthy, Music Director : Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Lyricst : Javed Akhtar
Remix : Singers – Kavita Krishnamurthy, Shashaa Tirupati, Re-Creation And Programming – Tanishk Bagchi
5. Humma Humma
Original : Music – A. R. Rehman, Lyrics – Mehboob Alam Kotwal, Singers – Remo Fernandes, A. R. Rehman, Swarnalatha
Remix : Music recreated by: Badshah & Tanishk Bagchi, Singers – Jubin Nautiyal, Shashaa Tirupati
6. Har Kisi Ko
Original : Singers- Manhar Udhas, Sadhana Sargam, Music Director- Kalyanji-Anandji ,Lyrics- Indeevar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62L6bN6VJS0
Remix: Singer- Arijit Singh, Neeti Mohan, Music Director: Chirantan Bhatt, Lyrics: Manoj Yadav
7. Dilbar dilbar – Satyamev Jayate
Original: Singer – Alka Yagnik, Lyricist – Sameer
Remix: Singers – Neha Kakkar, Dhvani Bhanushali, Ikka, Music: Tanishk Bagchi
(The writer is a trained classical singer)