Kala Chashma, Badshah prove Bollywood is running out of fresh ideas

Badshah rapped Kala Chashma is the reworked, retuned version of the yesteryear’s hit ‘Tenu kala chasma jach da eh’.

Baar Baar Dekho’s Kala Chashma is the latest addition to the party anthems. The song, which features Katrina Kaif and Sidharth Malhotra, is definitely a dance number will now be all over the playlists. But the question is why a remake again? Does our Bollywood music industry lack originality? Also, why ‘refresh’ an old hit by simply having Badshah rap in it? There are no music composers to work on original stuff? Is everyone simply looking at jazzing up an existing hit?

For those who came in late, Kala Chashma is the reworked, retuned version of the yesteryear’s hit ‘Tenu kala chasma jach da eh’. Bollywood is full of examples of such songs which found popularity and only then a place in a Bollywood film. Look at these examples: ‘Chull’ (Kapoor and Sons) and ‘Saturday’ (Humpty Sharma ki Dulhaniya), ‘Soch Na Sake’ (Airlift) and ‘Tung Tung Baje’ (Singh is Bliing). There is also ‘Tamil Fever’, ‘Gud Naal Ishq Mitha’ and ‘Zaroori Tha’. These were all songs which were sung by artists, found a fanbase and were then picked up by Bollywood music directors to be “reworked”.

Watch: Kala Chashma | Baar Baar Dekho | Sidharth Malhotra & Katrina Kaif

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And now it is ‘Kala Chashma’. As mentioned this new song is also composed and recreated by Badshah, with vocals of Amar Arshi, Badshah and Neha Kakkar. Yes, Badshah again. Rapper Badshah’s songs like ‘Ladki kar gai chull’, ‘Abhi toh party shuru hui hai’, ‘Saturday-Saturday’ and ‘Dhup chik hori se’ have already created waves in Bollywood. If it was Yo Yo Honey Singh who was rapping all over the place in Bollywood till a year ago, now it is Badshah.

Also read| Katrina Kaif, Sidharth Malhotra’s Kala Chashma is our party anthem of the year

Though Badshah has said in the past that he is not keen to compose for the Hindi film industry because underground artists look up to him. We are wondering what inspiration he is giving to his fanbase with rapping in old hits? Composing involves original content but the ‘remake’ trend is a nice way of saying rehash and nothing new to offer.

Kriti Sonali

Kriti works as a Copy Editor for the Entertainment section of Indian Express Online (Indianexpress.com). She is great at web stories, galleries, and Express Archive's photo stories. She is good at spotting stories from social media posts. She makes the copies well-loaded with content, photos, tweets, and other related social media posts to make it interesting for the readers. An alumnus of Asian College of Journalism, Chennai (Specialization in New Media), Kriti has been a part of the organisation since November 2015. She took a transfer from Delhi to Bengaluru in April 2017. ... Read More