After Bollywood, has OTT music become a genre in itself?

Sheetal

When we look at all the successful Indian web series, Mirzapur, Scam 1992 or with its latest season, The Family Man, there’s more than what meets the eye.

There’s no denying that all three have powerful stories, but their title tracks too made a lasting impression. As we look at the music industry taking a dive into this digital world, we also talk to singers, who have sung for OTT platforms, to know about their experience.

Roping in Bollywood biggies

Sachin Jigar has presented the perfect blend of Tamil music and Indie vibe for the songs of The Family Man Season 2. His Tamil songs, Hey Sippi Sippi and Unnara Vaithai have captured the emotions of the story beautifully.

Bandish Bandits, a series released a year ago had Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, to bring forward a fusion of Indian classical and western music. Singers like Mame Khan to Jonita Ghandi to Javed Ali to Armaan Malik came on board for this project.

Nikhil D’Souza’s Tu Saath Jo had all the emotions of the protagonist packed into one song from the series Sunflower. New series Grahan has National Award-winner lyricist Varun Grover teaming with music composer Amit Trivedi for two songs. Who would have thought what started as a trendsetter from Divine’s powerful Kaam 25 in Sacred Games would become a normal affair three years later? One cannot skip without mentioning actress Tabu singing Muddat Hui Hai in The Suitable Boy. The same way, Vaaroon, a wedding song of Guddu and Sweety from Mirzapur has its own fans as Dil Kaafir of Dia Mirza’s Kaafir. The song Yaara Teri Yaari from Four More Shots Please is an ode to friendship by talented singer Darshan Raval.

Melody matters

For singer Palak Muchhal, her song Kya Kiya Hai Tune in Broken But Beautiful Season 3 stayed with her till now. With already over 1million views, Broken But Beautiful is one series known for its songs from the first season itself, which is why the recent instalment had five songs soundtrack album with all known faces, Amaal Malik, Akhil Sachdeva, Sandman and Kabir. Palak says, “Amaal Malik had sent me the song. He asked me if I would be interested in singing it. As soon as I heard the melody, I was sure that I was going to sing it. In future also, if a good melody comes my way for an OTT platform, I would sing it.”

Only route to follow

With theatrical releases still on hold due to the pandemic, digital platforms are the only route that one can follow. Playback singer Papon, who last year sang Dance It Out for Netflix movie Axone, holds the view that OTT is the future. He says, “Web series and the music for the web space is the trend, irrespective of the pandemic. Having said that, it is not that the focus has shifted to OTT but because web series and web films have become the focus for the masses. The pandemic is just a phase, it will be over or we’ll figure a way to live with it. By then, we’ll get back to making music for the non-digital space too.”

His experience to work for Axone, “It was really nice composing and producing a track for the movie. I found the movie very interesting. It reminded me of my own college days in Delhi.”

Similar zone

The latest title track of Sunflower, starring Sunil Grover, reminds one of the hit theme tracks of Mirzapur, Scam 1992 and Bad Boys Billionaires and yet different in many ways. Singers like Prateek Kuhad, Ankur Tiwari and Nilotpal Bora have given voices to songs Kahaan Ho Tum, Rehne Do Na and De Mauka Zindagi in the series, Mismatched, Guilty and Aspirants, respectively. Visay feels, “One can easily connect with such relatable tracks. Soothing tracks with anything pleasing in terms of the lyrics stay with you for a long time.”

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