MUMBAI: Akshay ‘Khiladi’ Kumar is back to doing what he does best. The superstar actor is all set to be seen in his new film ‘Special Chabbis’, or ‘Special 26’, recently launched the music of his film amidst much fanfare.
Seen at the special music launch at Regal Cinema in Colaba were Akshay, his co-star Kajal Aggarwal, veteran actor Anupam Kher (who entered on a Lambretta scooter, mind you!), Manoj Bajpai and Divya Dutta, along with the film’s director- Neeraj Pandey. Akshay kept it cool in a dark suit, as he took to the stage and revealed that he considers himself a “bathroom singer”, since he has rendered a romantic song ‘Mujhme Tu’ in the film.
The actor joins a long list of Bollywood superstars who have sung for their own films, including Amitabh Bachchan (most recently in ‘Baghban’ and ‘Kahaani’), Abhishek Bachchan (‘Bluffmaster’ and ‘Dum Maaro Dum’), Priyanka Chopra (‘Bluffmaster’), Ranbir Kapoor (in ‘Barfi!’), Farhan Akhtar (‘Rock On!!’ and ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’) and of course Aamir Khan’s ‘Kya Bolti Tu’ in ‘Ghulam’.
Khiladi Kumar says of his playback debut, “In ‘Singh is Kinng’, I just did a few lines with Snoop Dogg. But this is technically my singing debut. Frankly, you have to credit my director Neeraj and music composer MM Kreem for this song. Kreem sahab made me sit at the harmonium for six to seven hours and urged me to give it a try. He said, ‘Akshay do not bother about the sur and taal. You just sing with sincerity. I will do the rest.’ I blindly followed his advice and I would like to dedicate this song as a Valentine Day’s gift to all lovers.”
Says Kreem, ‘Mujhme Tu’ is a very energetic song and though Akshay’s version is not yet in the album, we plan to include it soon. When we were working on the softer, orchestrated version of the song, I thought it would be good to get him to sing. I spoke to Neeraj, who was excited, but asked me to first check if Akshay’s pitch was good. He rehearsed the song for 15 days and we recorded it in less than an hour’s time. He has a rich voice and I am happy with the outcome.”
Adds Neeraj, “Akshay took an instant liking to the song. We decided to shoot a video with him and wanted him to lend his voice to the track. He isn’t a trained singer but he was so well-versed that by the time we recorded the song, it was very easy.”
‘Special Chabbis’ is produced jointly with Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and will release on 8th February 2013.
