Amitabh Bachchan steals Salim Sulaiman’s thunder

A song used to promote the film 102 Not Out seems to have thoroughly miffed the music directors of the film. Amitabh Bachchan, who has sung plenty of songs through his career, has been credited as the composer of the song Badumbaa, that has been ranking pretty high on the charts ever since it was released a couple of weeks ago. However, Salim Merchant, of the Salim-Sulaiman composer duo, who are the music directors of the film, are not at all pleased with the news.

Expecting some great comments for their work on the film, Badumbaa has now become a thorn bursting their bubble, considering it has become the most promoted song from the film. Worse, the duo got to know about the song only when it was released by the producers. “I am shocked. I think that’s a stronger word than upset,” reveals Salim. “As far as our understanding goes, this film was not supposed to have a promotional song. That’s why we were so surprised. Probably, Mr Bachchan already had that song and wanted to use it in this film,” he adds.

When we tried to prod a little more, Salim got cautious. “I know that you are trying to stir up controversy” he quips.

The singer-composer reiterated that they come on board any film only when they get to score all the songs in it. “We do fewer films because we insist we do the entire film and we want to do justice to every film we take up,” he admits. Clearly, Amitabh stealing their thunder has not left them with happy memories.

‘We do fewer films because we insist we do the entire film and we want to do justice to every film we take up’ — Salim Merchant