AR Rahman: I wasn’t happy with the idea of a new Humma Humma initially

Maestro AR Rahman, who had composed the original Humma Humma song for 1995 film Bombay, had doubts if the song should be recreated, but is happy with the outcome — The Humma Song in OK Jaanu.

Love it or hate it, but you can’t ignore The Humma Song, a rejig version of the 1995 classic, Humma Humma, that’s topping music charts. Composer AR Rahman — who had worked on the original, and shares credit with Tanishk Bagchi and Badshah for the new song in the film, OK Jaanu — reveals that he was sceptical of recreating this song.

AR Rahman says he asked (composer) Tanishk to come up with the first four bars of the song, and liked the beat.

“I wasn’t happy with the idea, initially. I was really hesitant about it at the start... But Shaad (the film’s director) was insistent. He kept on asking if we could use the song. So I asked Tanishk to come up with the first four bars of the song, and I kind of liked the beat. It sounded good and a bit different,” shares Rahman.

Even if it was a bad idea, everyone has fallen in love with it, which is great

Soon after the song’s release mid December, singer Remo Fernandes — who had crooned the original track, filmed on Manisha Koirala and Arvind Swamy in the film, Bombay — had slammed the new version. “The song is a pale, insipid version of the original,” he was quoted as saying in an interview.

However, Rahman is happy that the recreated version — filmed on actors Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor — is doing great, even if “it was a bad idea”. It has crossed over 7 crore hits on YouTube alone. “The fact that everyone sort of was listening to it on the New Year shows that people loved it and that’s what matters. I mean even if it was a bad idea, it has worked very well, and everyone has fallen in love with it, which is great... It was done keeping the youngsters and the present audience in mind who have immediately identified with the song. As long as people are liking it, the song is good,” he says.