While recreations of old hit songs for Hindi films isn’t a new trend, of late, filmmakers are opting for recreations of relatively newer songs. In the recent times, a number of movies saw hit singles that released barely a couple of years ago get recreated. Singer Ali Sethi’s cult song Pasoori was revisited for Satyaprem Ki Katha recently. Earlier, Manike Mage Hithe, a hit single by Sri Lankan singer Yohani, was used in the Sidharth Malhotra-starrer Thank God (2022). Jehda Nasha, a viral song composed by the indie band Faridkot, was used in the 2022 film An Action Hero.

While the singles are still fresh in listeners’ minds, we wonder what makes filmmakers opt for their recreations. Varun Gupta, the man behind the marketing of big films, including Adipurush and Saaho (2019), says, “Recreations, if done with a bit of thought, make sense. The call lies with the producer, director and actors. For films that don’t have much music, such recreations help in promotions. But when a movie has original music, it’s not required.”

Earlier, the 2018 song Coca Cola Tu by singer Tony Kakkar was recreated for actor Kartik Aaryan’s Luka Chuppi (2019). Musician Harrdy Sandhu’s 2018 chartbuster Naah Goriye was used in 2020 for the Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer Bala.

Gupta feels that promotional songs that don’t feature in the film are a good marketing tool. “Coming up with a recreation just before a film’s release to get attention works at times. But is it a foolproof way of marketing a film? Not at all,” shares Gupta.

Pasoori’s recreation for Satyaprem Ki Katha was discussed widely. The announcement came barely a few days before the release and the film’s director, Sameer Vidwans, admits that they were prepared for the polarizing feedback. “Pasoori is a cult song. So if we recreated it, people were bound to react. We really wanted the song in our film’s soundtrack. Yes, it could have led to a negative impact on the movie, but we were sure that the song’s intensity will only add [value] to our film. I am glad it worked,” he says.

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh doesn’t feel remakes help a film. “There’s so much original stuff we can do. Recreation has become a norm today. The makers feel if a song is already out, why not encash on its popularity? A really popular recent song, if recreated, will always draw comparisons with the original that’s still fresh in people’s minds,” he says.

Echoing the same sentiment, filmmaker Aanand L Rai, who produced An Action Hero, adds, “As a maker, I have accepted this and feel sorry. Recreations show our bankruptcy on the music front. It shows that we are unable to create something that is soulful or what people enjoy listening to. These things show that it is time for us to gear up and work a little more on our films’ music. It is a very important ingredient and we cannot borrow it every time. It is important to come up with originals.”