On August 28, Anubhav Sinha took to the social media to reveal that after 26 years, he is collaborating with Manoj Bajpayee on something special. It has learnt that the duo has teamed up for a single produced by Bhushan Kumar, titled ‘Bambai Mein Ka Ba’, in an attempt to revive the Bhojpuri music industry. “Back in the ’70s, Bhojpuri music was an integral part of Bollywood. Songs like ‘Chalat Musafir Moh Liya Re’ and ‘Ee Hai Bambai Nagariya’ played in every household, like Punjabi music today. In the last 25 years, it’s become crass, shunned by families and plays only in paan and chai shops. ‘Khaike Paan Banaraswala’ is among the last classy Bhojpuri songs,” rues the filmmaker.
Anubhav has wanted to upgrade regional music for a while now, but time or money constraints kept him away. “I lost my mother in 2012; after that, Bhojpuri disappeared from my life. This song is in her memory,” he asserts.
Talking about the collaboration with Manoj, he informs that a casual chat led to the two teaming up again. “We were discussing Bhojpuri music and I sent him my composition. He loved it. I asked him to sing it and feature in the music video. The next day, he was at the studio, rehearsing, and in a week, we were on the set. It’s a song about migrant workers,” Anubhav shares.
On Bhushan, he adds that the first professional call he made was to him, at the age of 19. “Since then, we have done a lot of work together and our relationship has gone beyond a professional association now,” he avers.
‘Bambai Mein Ka Ba’ was shot at a city studio in a day in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. “I was scared, but we followed the SOPs and it went off well. Every five minutes, someone would offer a sanitiser. It’s been two weeks since the shoot and no one has tested positive,” he says with satisfaction, adding that he had shot ‘Dus Bahane’ in one day and the song was a chartbuster.
