Remixing and rehashing old Bollywood music has become the trend these days. Add some new beats and a rap to the song and you’re good to go because it’s bound to hit at least a million views on YouTube and it will ultimately end up in every pub and club around the corner. I, personally feel extremely strongly about the lack of originality in Bollywood music these days, but turns out I’m not the only one. In the most recent lot of remixes and reprised versions, Lata Mangeshkar‘s iconic song Chalte Chalte from Pakeezah was recreated by Atif Aslam for the movie Mitron. Lata ji was clearly not happy with this development and spoke out about it in an interview with IANS.
When asked whether she had listened to the new rendition of her song, she said no and that she wouldn’t want to either.
And I don’t want to hear it. This trend of remixing old songs saddens me. Where is the creativity in simply lifting acknowledged, beloved classics and shuffling the notes around? I’ve even heard that the lyrics are changed in the remixes. By whose consent?
Other than the legendary singer many others have also spoken out about the lack of originality and the manner in which these songs are being rehashed.
Singer Alka Yagnik also had a lot to say about such songs.
Why don’t they make a new song and make it a superhit if they can, instead of picking up an already superhit song, distorting it, and releasing it again… and then saying, ‘See, it’s become so popular
She also mentioned how upset she was with them reprising even Lata ji’s songs.
Chalo humaare gaanon ke saath ye zulm kartey hain but their audacity is increasing by the day. Now they’ve started doing this to Lata didi’s song as well.
While Atif’s reprised version of the song was one of the better ones and was extremely soulful, I really hope that this trend dies out soon enough and Bollywood comes up with more original content.
What are your thoughts on this?