Amaal Malik: Number of views are not the only barometer to monitor a song's suc...

Amaal Malik’s recreation of popular song Gulabi Ankhein, titled Gulabi 2.0 may have crossed over 15 million views ever since its release on YouTube on March 23. But for the 25-year-old composer, number of views are not the only “barometer” to monitor a song’s success.

“It’s brilliant to see that it has gained so many views. But frankly, that’s not the only thing that gets me excited. It’s the fact that the song is being played everywhere- right from people playing it on their smartphones to people dancing to its tune in the clubs. I think to hear your song playing at almost every club on a weekend is the real indicator that the song is a hit. Number of views are a secondary thing ,” he says.

The remake, Amaal says was more of an accident and less of a conscious effort. “It’s funny. I had actually made another song titled Gulabi. The words and everything was different. Then just one day, I was in the studio and tried to sing the lyrics of Gulabi Aankhein in that song’s arrangement, and surprisingly it was fitting well. I never really thought I would be remaking it. It just happened,” he adds.

He has also sung the song, and adds that he was surprised when the producers asked him to retain his voice for the same. “ I had sung the scratch version of the song, which I sent to the producers to listen. They (producers) loved it when they listened to it first and then asked whose voice is this. I said ‘this is me on a cold day’ (laughs). My part of the vocals was all done in one take. I was just having fun and I never really thought I’d be retaining my voice for the song,” he says.

Remakes have become one of the hottest trends in the industry today, and Amaal too isn’t averse to them. The composer, who has recreated popular hits such as Kar Gayi Chull (Kapoor and Sons, 2016) and Soch Na Sake (Airlift, 2016) believes that the people, who criticise the trend are ‘jealous’ of music composers. “Those who say that it is very easy to recreate originals— I want to tell them that it’s very easy to make such opinions,” he laughs.

“Honestly, all those who say things like these are the first ones who dance on these recreations in a club on the weekend. In fact, the audience today, is liking the trend, and they are feeling the songs. You have to understand, that a producer would like to follow a trend, because they want their films to get popular, and when they see audience enjoying the trend. They would want to follow it,” he says.

“I get the initial reaction, when people say that they don’t like the new version. That’s natural, because they are used to listening the old one. But then five days later, you see the same bloggers dance to the new tune. That’s when you know it’s a hit,” he says.