MUMBAI: The music of J.P. Dutta’s Umrao Jaan released on 30 September. Present at the launch were the cast and crew of the film.

Also present were O.P Dutta, Amitabh Bachchan, Adlabs Films chairman and managing director Manmohan Shetty, T-Series head honcho Bhushan Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, fashion designer Anna Singh and art director Bijon Das Gupta.

The music of Umrao Jaan has been composed by Anu Malik and the lyrics have been penned by Jaaved Akhtar. The album consists of ghazals to suit the mood of the film.

While most songs of the 1981 Umrao Jaan have been sung by Asha Bhosle, this time round music director Aanuu Malik has opted for Alka Yagnik.

“J.P Dutta gave me the freedom to interpret the film’s music in my own way and to choose my singers by myself. Giving due respect to Ashaji, I wanted a singer who’d show great interest in the songs and luckily I saw that in Alka,” says Malik.

Yagnik adds, “Umrao Jaan is a culmination of my experience of so many years spent in this industry.  I have never sung songs like this in my entire life, so I worked hard to pronounce the Urdu words correctly and in the right expression to portray Umrao’s voice for Aishwarya.”

Malik and Yagnik collectively added that Aishwarya’s presence at the studio during song recordings was a great encouragement. Malik had won a national award when he last teamed up with JP Dutta for Refugee (2000).

Going by the precedent, expectations from this team for Umrao Jaan are high as well.