#TG LIfe
The latest Bollywood trend of rehashing old songs to include them in new movies has more to it than meeting the eye.
According to reports, Indra Kumar’s upcoming film Total Dhamaal will feature Ajay Devgn and Sonakshi Sinha dancing to recreation of iconic song Mungda from 1977 film Inkar.
Now, despite the passage of time, some things never change. One of them is Bollywood’s obsession with songs and dance. Most Bollywood films have songs, sometimes included even if they are completely irrelevant to the plot of the film. Frankly, there is nothing wrong with having a good song in a film, but that is one of the major issues Bollywood seems to face. Good songs come few and far between. But the latest trend will make you accept even the bad songs that some Hindi films have -because at least they are original. But the new trend seeks to dish out re engineered versions of classic old songs.
The year 2017 saw this trend peak with a number of rehashed old songs appearing at times in remakes of old films. In the early 2017, there was Shraddha Kapoor starrer OK Jaanu (which itself was a remake of Mani Rathnam’s 2015 film OK Kanami) featured a rehash of the 1995 song Hamma. Second big release of the year, Hrithik Roshan-starrer Kaabil went further back in time, bringing up Haseeno Ka Deewana which was a remixed version of the 1981 classic song featuring Amitabh Bachhan. The trend continued with Laila Mai Laila (Raees) Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast (Machine)
Later that year, Arjun Kapoor’s Mubarakan brought Hawa Hawai, and the year ended with Judwaa 2, a sequel only in name. In reality the whole movie was a rehash of the original Salman Khan film, complete with all the songs. Now, the trend is being further confirmed by the latest rehash of Mungda. All this might lead one to wonder what has led to the sudden explosion in remakes of old movies and songs. Is Bollywood facing a crisis of creativity?
If you are thinking anything along those lines, be assured that it is not the case. In fact, rehashing old songs and movies is creative master-stroke.
The move has a shrewd business calculation behind it. Invoking nostalgia is an easy way to get the listener drawn to these songs, and thus can connect with and remember the movies better. Plus, rehashing an old song saves a part of expenses and time required to come up with something original. This way you are giving less output, but making more money.
Singer Amit Trivedi has recently shed light on this phenomenon, stating that pressure to rehash old songs comes not from composers or singers, but from producers and big labels. Singers or composers will be generally reluctant to work on a remix because they will not want to touch someone else’s body of work. But for producers, if it brings in big money, it is fair game.
