Apna Bombay Talkies

"Apna Bombay Talkies" (English: Our Bombay Talkies) is a Hindi song from the 2013 Bollywood anthology film, Bombay Talkies. Composed by Amit Trivedi, the song is sung by Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik, Kumar Sanu, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Sonu Nigam, Kavita Krishnamoorthy, Sadhana Sargam, Sunidhi Chauhan, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Shaan, Shreya Ghoshal, KK, Sukhwinder Singh, Shilpa Rao, Mohit Chauhan, with lyrics penned by Swanand Kirkire.[2]

"Apna Bombay Talkies"
Screen shot featuring various Bollywood actors and actresses[1]
Song by Various artists
from the album Bombay Talkies
LanguageHindi
English title"Our Bombay Talkies"
Released
  • 16 April 2013 (2013-04-16) (promo audio)
  • 26 April 2013 (2013-04-26) (music video)
GenreFilmi
Length4:13
LabelT-Series
Composer(s)Amit Trivedi
Lyricist(s)Swanand Kirkire
Producer(s)Ashi Dua
Music video
"Apna Bombay Talkies" on YouTube

The music video of the track features actors Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Aamir Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Rani Mukerji, Karisma Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Sridevi, Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Imran Khan, Vidya Balan, Kareena Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor.[1]

Background

On 12 March 2013, choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant announced on Twitter that she is directing a song for Bombay Talkies, celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema.[3] Besides directing the song, Merchant was selected to choreograph and conceptualise it.[4] For the song Merchant had to seek and obtain 80 No Objection Certificates from producers whose clippings have been used for the number.[5] She revealed that around 3500 frames, 19 singers, 100 dancers, 100 members of the crew, and 20 actors were used for the development of the song.[5]

Composition and singing

The song is composed by Amit Trivedi while the lyrics is penned by Swanand Kirkire. Trivedi kept the basic tune of the song 'neutral' and fit in the different style requirement of different eras of Hindi cinema from the 1930s till date (2010s). In an interview Trivedi stated "It took me 2–3 months to co-ordinate with the singers. There was no briefing and the singers only had a couple of lines. The list (of singers) was of those who had lent their voices to the stars of Hindi cinema".[6]

The song is sung by over 20 singers and marks the first time 20 singers joined up for a song in Bollywood. The singers have recorded for those actors whom they generally do the playback singing for in their films.[2]"Apna Bombay Talkies" is the only song which brings legendary singers trio of 90's Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan & Abhijeet together for the first time that too with veteran singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and finest singers of 2000 like Sonu Nigam, Sukhwinder Singh, Shaan, KK & Mohit Chauhan.The female singer league had a great combination from all times like Kavita Krishnamoorthy, Alka Yagnik, Sadhana Sargam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal and Shilpa Rao making this song the rarest and finest compilation ever.[7]

Picturization

On 4 March 2013, reports suggested that Ranbir Kapoor is part of the film as the narrator.[8] It was later confirmed that he rather appears in the title song. On 2 April 2013, it was reported that Aamir Khan will be making a special appearance in a segment of the film.[9] On 3 April 2013, it was revealed that Khan will be not be seen in a separate segment of the film, but in a song dedicated to 100 years of Indian Cinema.[10]

On 13 April 2013, reports confirmed that Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan will be seen together for the first time on Indian screen for the song.[11] It also confirmed the presence of Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor in the song.[11] On 23 April 2013, it was revealed that both Sonam Kapoor and Anil Kapoor will share screen for this song.[12] Choreographer of the song, Vaibhavi Merchant in her Twitter handle stated all the 20 stars that are making an appearance in the song.[13] On 20 April 2013, it was reported that Salman Khan was approached for the song but he declined it mentioning date issues.[14]

The actors featuring in the song followed a dress code where all the men wore black tuxedos and the women wore gold outfits, designed by their own stylists.[15] The song took over a month to be shot entirely as all the actors shot their respective parts independently.[2] Prior to the shooting, the stars come in two or three hours to rehearse their moves. All the actors had one signature step in common. That step was shot at the Asiatic Library in South Mumbai.[2] The whole song took four months to be completed.[16]

Release

A two-minute promo of the audio song was released along with the soundtrack of the album on 16 April 2013.[17] The music video of the song was officially released on 26 April 2013, through the YouTube channel of T-Series.[1]

Background Song Film Background Song Singer Actor
Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak "Papa Kehte Hain" Udit Narayan Aamir Khan
Khalnayak "Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai" Alka Yagnik Madhuri Dixit
Raja Hindustani "Pardesi Pardesi" Karishma Kapoor
International Khiladi "International Khiladi" Kumar Sanu Akshay Kumar
Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke "Ghunghat Ki Aaad Se Dilbar Ka" Sadhana Sargam Juhi Chawla
Yeh Dillagi "Ole Ole" Abhijeet Bhattacharya Saif Ali Khan
Bunty Aur Babli "Bunty Aur Babli" Kavita Krishnamurthy Rani Mukherjee
Mr. India "Hawa Hawaii" Sridevi
Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! "Didi Tera Devar Deewana" S. P. Balasubrahmanyam N/A
Dostana "Desi Girl" Sunidhi Chauhan Priyanka Chopra
Dil Chahta Hai "Woh Ladki Hai Kahan" Shaan Farhan Akhtar
Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na "Pappu Can't Dance" Imran Khan
The Dirty Picture "Ooh La La" Shreya Ghoshal Vidya Balan
Jab We Met "Yeh Ishq Hai" Kareena Kapoor
Band Baaja Baaraat "Ainvayi Ainvayi" KK Ranveer Singh
Slumdog Millionaire "Jai Ho" Sukhwinder Singh Anil Kapoor
Kaminey "Dhan Te Nan" Shahid Kapoor
Delhi-6 "Masakali" Shilpa Rao Sonam Kapoor
Om Shanti Om "Deewangi Deewangi" Deepika Padukone
Rockstar "Sadda Haq" Mohit Chauhan Ranbir Kapoor
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge "Tujhe Dekha To" Sonu Nigam Shah Rukh Khan
Kal Ho Naa Ho "Kal Ho Naa Ho"

Reception

Upon release the song got mixed reactions from people. While most expressed their disappointment with the song as well as the video, some have mentioned that the montage that precedes the video in the film is definitely worth a watch.[18] Reviewers reviewing from The Times of India reviewed the song as a fast, peppy track and stated it 'has a vintage feeling to it' and "is extravagant in nature with an old-world feel".[19] On 3 May 2013, around 400 cakes was given to the film fraternity on behalf of the directors, to celebrate the song.[20]

Reviewers from IBNLive.com stated "Trivedi, who gave beautiful music in several of the popular films last year fails to create a memorable tune in for the anthology film which only appears to be hurriedly put together".[18] Rajeev Masand who reviews from CNN-IBN, stated in his Twitter handle "Can't decide what's worse between the song and the video. How could they get so many stars and do such a wretched job!".[18] With the release of the song, reports came criticising the absence of iconic legends like Dilip Kumar, Salman Khan, the Deols, Jeetendra, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgan and Kajol who contributed for Indian Cinema.[21]

Theatrical version

On 2 May 2014, producer of the song, Ashi Dua confirmed that the whole song is eight-minute long and will pay homage to all the stars who have ruled Bollywood over the course of 100 years of Indian cinema.[22] This version of the song was seen only in theatre.[23]

The first half of the song has clippings of popular films of many yesteryear celebrities like Prithviraj Kapoor, Nargis Dutt, Sunil Dutt, Madhubala, Rajesh Khanna, Waheeda Rehman, Shatrughan Sinha, Amitabh Bachchan, Tanuja, Mithun Chakraborty, Zeenat Aman, Rishi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Rekha and Parveen Babi. Brief portions of their films have been picked up and collated on VFX, and made it seems as they are lip-syncing the song. Sudesh Bhosle sung the portion representing golden voices like KL Sehgal, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar, Hemanta Kumar, S. D. Burman, Mahendra Kapoor and other singers of the golden era while Shailendra Singh and Vijay Benedict joined to sing their own songs from the '80s.[16]

Obtaining videos for the song, Vaibhavi Merchant stated "For the footage used in the song from films in the black-and-white and the coloured era we had go from door-to-door asking producers and their surviving kin for consent. There were 80 permissions to be had. Most of the producers I approached were sweet. They understood the importance of what was being done. Having gotten permission to use footage was not the toughest part. Harder still was the fact that the song required so many visual special-effects".[5]

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References
  1. "Apna Bombay Talkies Title Song Video". Koimoi. 26 April 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  2. "Kareena, Vidya, Priyanka and 17 more A-listers come together for Bombay Talkies". Hindustan Times. 25 April 2014. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  3. "Vaibhavi Merchant March 12, 2014, status update". Twitter. 12 March 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  4. "Couldn't have asked for more, Vaibhavi on 'Apna Bombay Talkies'". IndiaTVnews. 30 April 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  5. "Bombay Talkies song required 80 NOCs". Indian Express. 3 May 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  6. "Bombay Talkies was the biggest challenge: Amit Trivedi". Radio and Music. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  7. "'Bombay Talkies' Title Track Is An All-Star Show". Koimoi. 25 April 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  8. "Ranbir roped in for Bombay Talkies". Bollywood Hungama. 4 March 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  9. "Aamir roped in for Bombay Talkies". Bollywood Hungama. 2 April 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  10. "Aamir Khan to do a theme song to honour Indian Cinema". Indian Express. 3 April 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  11. "Shah Rukh Khan-Aamir Khan together on screen for the first time?". The Times of India. 13 April 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  12. "Anil and Sonam Kapoor in Bombay Talkies". Bollywood Hungama. 23 April 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  13. "Bollywood stars unite for 'Bombay Talkies' song 'Apna Bombay Talkies'". Digital Spy. 26 April 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  14. "Foes SRK-Aamir, Priyanka-Kareena Team Up For Bombay Talkies Song". Koimoi. 20 April 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  15. "Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh come together in 'Bombay Talkies'". The Times of India. 25 April 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  16. "Shah Rukh, Aamir, Priyanka, Ranbir, Vidya and Bollywood celebs in 'Bombay Talkies' song". Indian Express. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  17. "Bombay Talkies song credits". iTunes. 16 April 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  18. "Is that really Amit Trivedi behind the 'Apna Bombay Talkies' song?". IBNLive.com. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  19. "Bombay Talkies: Music Review". The Times of India. 3 May 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  20. "Bombay Talkies innovative marketing campaign". Bollywood Hungama. 3 May 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  21. "Where are Salman Khan, the Bachchans and Deols in 'Apna Bombay Talkies'?". Zee News. 29 April 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  22. "Yesteryear stars come alive with 'Bombay Talkies'". Bollywood Hungama. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  23. Shalvi Mangaokar (2 May 2013). "'Apna Bombay Talkies took four months to create'". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
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