Wajid with Muskaan and her father, Sajid

Dabangg composers Sajid-Wajid on superstar Salman Khan's role in reinventing soundtrack for the third part of the sequel, and how Sajid's daughter Muskaan's association with the film was a stroke of luck
Sonia Lulla (MID-DAY; December 2, 2019)

One may attribute it to the fact that he is veteran writer Salim Khan's son, but when caught in his element, Salman Khan's wordplay can be quite delightful to witness. We've seen it during his stint as the host of reality show Bigg Boss, and even in interviews. But Dabangg 3 music directors Sajid-Wajid promise that it is, in fact, while ideating for his comic-action franchise that Khan is quite the fireball.

"Salman bhai likes to throw bouncers and check our reaction to them. In fact, we don't even take his jokes lightly," laughs Sajid, before pointing out that Munna badnam hua, the track that's currently the talk of the town, was in fact Khan's brainchild. "For the world, he may be a hero; but for me, he is a musical guy. His inputs on this soundtrack were extremely meaningful. Often, he'd use a phrase or word, and ask me if it could be added to a certain portion of the song. He is a thinking actor, and a lot of his ideas were put into play when creating the soundtrack for Dabangg."

Placed in a position to create the soundtrack for the third edition of a franchise that has so far received acclaim for both its storyline and music, the duo agrees that keeping the songs as fresh as possible was their primary concern. "Since this edition is a prequel, we enjoyed several liberties. If you notice, in Dabangg 2, the melody was mature to reflect the character's married life. Here, there is a freedom that the character enjoys, and [we could depict that] through the romantic tracks," says Sajid, as Wajid points to a tool they employed to further keep the music attuned with their needs. "We used live instruments too to make the songs come alive. On international turf, scores are [recorded] live. It's sad that in our country, the trend is dying. Unlike the way it was 25 years ago, one needs to actually scout for people who can do this today."

Even though the duo "missed" working with the singers they usually collaborate with — including Sonu Nigam, Sukhwinder Singh and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan — employing a fresh set of singers, they believe, has done them much good. "We used combinations that haven't been explored so far, like pairing Shreya Ghoshal with Jubin Nautiyal. We also [employed] Badshah, and Salman Ali." Wajid adds that frequent collaborator Singh was kept away from the title track, because he's offered that way too often. "He's so brilliant that I think he should be employed for [more complicated] songs. He too says he's tired of singing title tracks." But, for the duo, the high point of roping in singers for this film lies in the selection of Muskaan.

Sajid's daughter's appointment as the voice of Saiee Manjrekar, says the father, was a stroke of luck. "Salman bhai had requested several friends' daughters, who were pursuing music, to test for this part. At that time, I didn't want to use my daughter, since he was already looking for people. However, once, during a visit to his home, [my associate] happened to play a cover song that had been recorded by Muskaan. Salman bhai, who was in the washroom, came out and enquired about it. He asked for the song to be played again, and on learning that it was Muskaan singing, told me, 'Tell her, welcome to the Dabangg family'."

Salman Ali goes over the high points of his journey that won him a talent hunt show and a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh; also what the future holds
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 25, 2018)

After a fierce, 25-week competition, the 10 th season of Sony’s Indian Idol found its winner in Salman Ali from Mewat, Haryana. The singer bested fellow finalists Nitin Kumar, Ankush Bharadwaj, Neelanjana Ray and Vibhor Parashar to claim the top prize in the talent hunt contest. When asked if he had expected to win when he was auditioning for the show, Salman surprised with his confidence, saying, “Everyone participates in a competition to win, so yes, the intent was to win. But, I didn’t expect to get so much love from the viewers. They stood by my side all the way and helped me succeed.”

The 20-year-old singer goes on to reveal that although it was special to meet every celebrity who made an appearance on the reality show, interacting with the two Khans — Salman and Shah Rukh — was the high point in the journey for him. “If you ask me about a specific moment, meeting Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan was a dream come true. They liked my performance, joined me on the stage and even showered their blessings,” he beams.

Salman Ali says he wants to use the cash prize of Rs 25 lakh to give a boost to his singing career. “I want to work in Bollywood as a playback singer, and Vishal sir (Vishal Dadlani, one of the judges on the show) has promised to meet me soon to discuss a potential collaboration. You will get to hear about a development very soon. I want to take my voice to the entire country,” the singer asserts.

Besides Vishal, he is also full of gratitude for the other judge on the panel, Neha Kakkar. “Both Vishal sir and Neha helped me grow as a person, and I am grateful to them for their support,” he adds.

Ankush Bharadwaj, from Himachal Pradesh, was the runner-up and was awarded a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh. 

Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 20, 2018)

Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, and Anushka Sharma came together for the finale of Sony TV’s Indian Idol 10 at a suburban studio. The shoot started at 7 pm and went on till 11 pm with the five contestants performing on a medley of SRK hits. When prodded on his favourite to win the talent hunt contest this year, he picked out Salman Ali whose “Sajda” from My Name Is Khan had won him over. He requested for an encore so he could lip sync too and after the actor joked, “Bahut kam mauke aate hai jab main Salman ki taarif karta hoon”, before giving the boy a warm hug.

Katrina was also left awed by the performances and kept asking if the singers were crooning ‘live’ or lip syncing on a recorded song. Later, she surprised host Manish Paul by joining him on stage during his dance performance on her song “Afghan Jalebi”.