Shankar Mahadevan Shares ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ Title Track’s Surprising Secret

MUMBAI- Music composer Shankar Mahadevan has shared an interesting anecdote about the title track of the iconic film ‘Dil Chahta Hai’, revealing that despite 21 mixes of the song, its original rough mix made it to the final cut.

Mahadevan, along with fellow composers Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa and sound engineer Vijay Benegal (Benny), had worked on multiple versions of the title track. However, the scratch version was ultimately retained after it received the most appreciation from the makers and the team.

In a special video for Spotify, Mahadevan sat down for a conversation with Noorani, Mendonsa, playback singer Shaan and Meiyang Chang and recalled how the rough mix was retained.

“Shall I reveal one more secret about this song? Benny did about 21 mixes of the song. And this, what you’re hearing is the rough mix. There was something, something magical about it. What you’re hearing is actually the first scratch that we did of the song. The bass lines and all. We had some new samples and great drums, we experimented, and it paid off. People get scared of being minimalistic,” Mahadevan said.

He further explained why the stripped-down approach worked for the song.

“Most people in the business want to fill it up. That shows a person’s insecurity. If you’re very confident about your melody, if you’re confident about your groove and your bass line and your, and that minimal thing, you don’t need stuff. If you have a good engineer who mixes it well, it fills up the space,” he said.

‘Dil Chahta Hai’, directed by Farhan Akhtar in his directorial debut, became a defining film of modern Hindi cinema, particularly for its portrayal of friendship, romance and youthful independence. (IANS)