Superstar makes regional language debut as singer, recreating aclassic for friend Mahesh Manjrekar’s film
Soumya Vajpayee Tiwari (MID-DAY; May 16, 2017)

That Salman Khan has lent his voice to one of the songs in Mahesh Manjrekar’s upcoming Marathi movie, FU – Friendship Unlimited is known. But composer-singer Vishal Mishra, who worked on the film’s soundtrack cannot stop gushing about the superstar’s musical prowess. “Salman’s grasping power is great. I was amazed when he completed recording of the song, Gachi, in 45 minutes flat,” Vishal says. Gachi, he informs, is a recreated version of the old classic, Panchi Banu Udti Phiru (Chori Chori, 1956), which is among Salman’s all time favourite tracks.

To make it easier for Sallu, the composer first recorded the number in his voice. “He had heard the song so many times that he picked it up quickly. His voice had more energy than mine,” he adds.

Like in the case of Salman’s previous playback outings, was auto-tuner used this time round as well? “Auto-tuner is used in almost all songs these days because it enhances pitch accuracy. I have composed 16 songs for FU and used auto-tuner in each of them. In Salman’s case, we used it to enhance the edge. Had any other singer sung it, I would have used technology even then. But Salman was the best choice to sing it,” says Vishal.

The composer recalls being rebuked by Manjrekar after listening to the recorded track, but thanks his lucky stars that Salman came to his rescue. “I was happy post dubbing with Salman, but Maheshji felt the Marathi words sounded wrong and asked me to dub it once more. I approached Salman and he gracefully agreed to re-record the song,” adds Vishal.

FU stars Sairat actor Akash Thosar in the lead.