Although Saiyaara’s massive success does not fundamentally imply that Bollywood is back or that its slump is over, the respite that it has offered an ailing industry cannot be underestimated. At a time when even big-ticket movies featuring massive stars are bombing, the musical romantic drama emerging as a blockbuster, despite starring two fairly new actors in the lead roles, has offered Bollywood a chance to set its priorities straight.
Besides its story, treatment, and performances by Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda, the one aspect that Saiyaara has been receiving the most praise for is its music. While all its songs are currently trending, the one that soared higher than any other is the title track, crafted by composer-singer Tanishk Bagchi. It’s not just reigning over Spotify’s Top 50 chart in India, but is also at the fourth spot in the audio streaming platform’s global list.
Although the track has been receiving much praise from most quarters, it has also found itself caught in a controversy after some claimed that parts of the song sounded similar to English–Irish pop boy band One Direction’s “Night Changes” and playback singer Jubin Nautiyal’s “Humnava Mere”. However, Tanishk Bagchi has categorically denied these claims. “Whatever I do, people will have something to say because they don’t have [anything better to do]. They keep on looking for opportunities to put me down,” he claimed during a chat with India Today.
The composer added, “But ultimately, the song will go wherever it’s destined to, and that’s what’s happening with Saiyaara too. As for the comparisons, if you look at the melody, the chords are the same. The A minor scale has just about 3-4 chords but every melody has a different soul. That doesn’t mean that anything was stolen. Even if you can do that, it’s really difficult to make it a hit.”
Watch Saiyaara song here:
“All said and done, we didn’t steal anything. The similarities are fine, it can happen, but it’s not like we did it on purpose. Idhar se utha ke udhar nahi kiya (we didn’t pick and add anything). We worked on the emotion of the song, and that worked. That’s the magic of the track Saiyaara,” he maintained, adding, “The best thing is that it’s an original Hindi song, a pure Hindi song. There is no collaboration with foreign artists; everyone associated is home-grown, so that’s a big achievement for me.”
