Rohan Sippy’s second directorial venture, ‘Bluff Master’ starring Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra, is certainly living up to its name. The highlight of the film’s music album - ‘Sabse Bada Rupaiya’, which the filmmakers touted as the original song with Mehmood’s voice, apparently is a huge bluff!
While Ramesh Sippy has acquired the rights to the song that was originally sung in the 1976 film of the same name from HMV, the song apparently couldn’t be remixed. Therefore, Mehmood’s voice had to be replaced by that of Chetan Sasithal, who has very cleverly been mentioned in the credits as the artiste who’s provided additional vocals.
When contacted, Chetan confirmed the fact, “The producers of the film had planned a remix track, but the quality of the original song was not really that great. They couldn’t really lift the song so they decided to re-record the voice. Sameeruddin (one of the music producers) called me and said they wanted me to sing in Mehmood’s voice. It was indeed a big challenge. But I think it has come out pretty well.”
The music album of the film has only the remixed versions (mostly by UK group Trickbaby) of yesteryear chartbusters and no original compositions.
However, the senior Sippy has insisted that it is Mehmood’s voice that they have used in the song. “The original songs are a little weak. We are re-using the songs with the requisite permissions. But honestly, I wouldn’t be able to help you much with this information as Rohan knows better,” he said, stressing once again, “Yes, of course, it is Mehmood’s voice.”
Rohan Sippy however admitted to having used Chetan’s voice, but he says, “The song features both Mehmood and Chetan’s voices.” But wasn’t the song being touted as Mehmood’s voice? “Yeah, that was the original idea. But unfortunately the quality of the song is so poor that we had to use another voice in it.”
s_shubha@dnaindia.net
