Prateek Tanmay
The title track of Nitin Kakkar’s long-awaited romantic thriller Awarapan 2, “Yeh Awarapan”, was released on Tuesday, offering audiences an emotional first glimpse into the film while marking Arijit Singh’s rumoured return to playback singing. The singer announced his retirement earlier this year, shocking not only the music and entertainment industry but also his countless listeners.
No comeback for Arijit Singh
As soon as the song dropped online, the audience speculated whether Arijit has now renounced retirement and made his much-anticipated comeback to playback singing merely months after announcing his decision. However, the singer’s team has put all such rumours to rest by confirming that “Yeh Awarapan” doesn’t mark his return to the mic, but only serves as a prior commitment he needed to honour.
“He is just completing the projects that were finalised before the retirement was announced. Arijit isn’t doing a comeback in playback singing. These are old commitments,” the singer’s manager told The Print. While this clarification may upset many Arijit fans, they surely have a few more such “old commitments” to look forward to and savour the singer’s swansongs.
More about “Yeh Awarapan”
The newly launched track brings together a notable creative team, led by composer Amaal Mallik, while the lyrics have been written by the songwriting duo Rashmi Virag. Released under the Sony Music India banner, it reunites the celebrated singer with Mukesh Bhatt’s production house Vishesh Films. Arijit had a major breakthrough with the romantic song “Tum Hi Ho” from Mohit Suri’s 2013 musical romance Aashiqui 2, also backed by Vishesh Films.
Blending melancholic melodies with emotionally charged poetry, the song explores themes of love, separation, loss and loneliness, setting the emotional tone for the film. The music video features Emraan Hashmi reprising his iconic character, Shivam Pandit. The visuals follow Shivam through moments of emotional devastation, grief, and inner conflict before shifting into an intense rain-soaked action sequence.
The first film, Awarapan, directed by Mohit Suri, released in cinemas on June 29, 2007. Starring Hashmi and Shriya Saran, the film did not perform well at the box office upon release, but gradually went on to earn a strong cult following among fans. Its music, especially tracks like “Toh Phir Aao”, continues to remain popular.
The story of the first film follows Shivam Pandit, a contract killer who is asked to keep an eye on his boss’s mistress. After learning that she is a victim of sex trafficking, he decides to help reunite her with the man she loves. The second part sees him rise from the dead and go on a whole new adventure. Awarapan 2 also stars Disha Patani and Shabana Azmi, and marks the acting debut of veteran actor Paresh Rawal’s son Aniruddh Rawal. It’s slated to release in cinemas on August 14.
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Arijit Singh’s retirement
Earlier this year in January, Arijit took to social media and wrote, “I am happy to announce that I am not gonna be taking any new assignments as a playback vocalist from now on. I am calling it off. It was a wonderful journey.” However, he did clarify that he’d be honouring his prior commitments, which implies that the audience may listen to his new songs for the rest of the year.
These new songs included the title track of Vishal Bhardwaj’s romantic thriller O’ Romeo, composed by Bhardwaj and written by Gulzar. Then there was the title track of Sunil Pandey’s romantic drama Ek Din, composed by Ram Sampath and written by Irshad Kamil. Producer Aamir Khan went to Arijit’s hometown of Jiaganj, West Bengal to record the song days after his retirement announcement.
A couple of months ago, Arijit’s longtime collaborator and music composer Pritam told SCREEN that they’d decided to announce their retirement together — only for the singer to go ahead alone the very next day. “One night, he told me, “The day you retire, I’ll also retire.” The next day, he announced his retirement from playback singing. After doing that, he called me and said, “Aapse nahi hoga,” said Pritam.
“Artists don’t retire. They take a break and redirect to something that is interesting them more. Let him move at his own pace. There’s so much he wants to explore. To start with, he is directing a film with an extremely beautiful and meaningful script. Also, it’s his life, his voice, so it should be his decision when to sing and when not to sing what to sing and what not to sing,” argued the composer.
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“He was singing so many songs, maybe he doesn’t want to sing for now. Sometimes directors also pressurize all of us. I also find it hard to say no. Give him time, he’ll be all okay. People are thinking too much into his retirement. Why are you giving him so much pressure? Let him do what he wants. He’ll sing when he wants to. Somebody said if he’s retired, why are his songs still coming out? Arey, but why are you bothered? Why are you after him? He has a life. Every artiste wants a break. A lot of things trigger us,” added Pritam.
