Arijit and Salim-Sulaiman to drop item song for documentary on the Bollywood story of Australia!

Popular music composer duo Salim-Sulaiman and singing sensation Arijit Singh are coming together for an item song for Brand Bollywood Down Under, which is a documentary on Bollywood. Describing the item song for director Anupam Sharma’s documentary, Salim-Sulaiman said, “Anupam was very clear. He wanted a foot-tapping song that represents Indian cinema in a very cultural and a beautiful way.”

The two brothers wanted to capture a lot emotions in the song Aaja Baija Tu. “It was more metaphorical than direct. When a maker wants a make a film, he wants to invite the audience to come and sit in the theatre and watch the film. That’s the basis of this hook line,” they said.

Heaping praise on Arijit, the composers said, “Arijit is not just India’s finest singer, but is also one of the top singers in the world. His voice has great tonality for screen.”

For them, the song had to be a part of a documentary that showcases Bollywood to the world. “It’s very clear to the world … every 6th person in the world is an Indian and we have had beautiful music and dance tradition. It’s a nation that has so much of history and culture.”

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Sharma had his reasons for creating the documentary. “There is a need for a documentary for every aspect of Australia and Bollywood. There is a need of a global documentary on Bollywood or popular Indian cinema. There is a need for a documentary on Australia and India film links from trade, film, political and social points of views,” said the director.

Having studied films abroad and living in the west, he is amazed that when one Googles Bollywood, they will find over 1.51 billion hits in .3 seconds, that’s 1/3 of a second. “You look around, there are Bollywood dance classes, shows and theme parties. Still, there is nothing comprehensive on why it is called Bollywood, who named it, how did popular Hindi cinema get the name of Bollywood, what are its origins and many such questions which have never been addressed cohesively and comprehensively,” he said.

He notes that there are small pieces on NRIs trying to make it big in Bollywood and camera following them, and there are short pieces making fun of Bollywood by Clive James.

“Everyone was apologizing for Bollywood, sheepishly being embarrassed, and scared of ridicule. I hated that. Hindi popular cinema no matter what you call it Bollywood, mainstream, popular, is deeper in form and content and ‘seriously entertaining’ and needed to be celebrated. As Anupam Kher says in our film, ‘We make 1.4 billion people happy. We do sell misery of life we celebrate life’. Hence, the need for this documentary particularly for the west,” said Sharma.

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It was when just before Covid, Indian films started doing well in Australian mainstream theatres and Indian diaspora in the West boomed that they came to a full circle and started working on this documentary as the makers saw a story.

“Over 20 years, one of the biggest things me and my team have earned is love, respect and friendship of some of the biggest Bollywood icons. When I asked them to speak on camera or provide clips of their film, they did it without any hesitation,” said Sharma.

“Documentaries are not commercial and are labour of love, so I was overwhelmed with gurus like Anupam Kher and well-wishers like Sajid N, and Vipul Shah, and giants like Samir Nair, Amit Khanna, Ritesh Sidhwani Harman Baweja and his whole family, Farhan Akhtar and Fardeen along with internationally renowned Leena Yadav and Srishti Behl who gave their time for interviews,” added the director.

Rakesh Roshan, Aamir Khan Productions and SRK Red Chillies, VCP films and other film studios also helped the makers.