Playback singer Chandana Dixit recalls her debut song, Husn hai suhana, which she recorded in 1995 for the Govinda-Karisma Kapoor starrer Coolie No.1, and which changed her musical journey overnight. The song has been used in the 2020 remake of the film starring Varun Dhawan and Sara Ali Khan.

While the original number was composed by Anand-Milind, it has been recreated by Tanishk Bagchi for the new film. The voices of Chandana and Abhijeet Bhattacharya have been retained in the remixed version, as well as the lyrics by Sameer Anjaan.

"I think the whole idea of keeping the voice of the original singers is nice. It really helps to hold the old charm of the original song. So this time when I recorded the first paragraph of the song, it brought back so many memories of my first recording. It was my debut song. I met music directors Anand-Milind and my co-singer Abhijeet for the first time when I went for the recording of the song in the studio," Chandana told IANS.

She added: "I remember a live violin was played as accompaniment for us to get the sur (tune) right. It was very special because, to be honest, I did not even know that time if the song will be retained in my voice. I went there to dub for the song. Perhaps that is how the beginnings happen for many singers. Luckily the song turned out well. So they decided to keep my voice."

Which version of the dance did she enjoy more -- Govinda-Karisma and Varun-Sara? "I think it is a bit unfair to compare because the original song, its picturisation and everything was a complete package and it was a success. Because of that, the song has been re-imagined now, and without tampering the very essence of it we tried to put it in a contemporary space. So, I will not compare and say which one is better," Chandana replied diplomatically.

Davud Dhawan's Coolie No. 1 released on December 25 on the OTT platform Amazon Prime Video.

(Arundhuti Banerjee can be contacted at arundhuti.b@ians.in)