10th Bollywood Music Project: Roop, Anu, Palash own the show
The tenth Bollywood Music Project served 90s and 2000s nostalgia, with Roop Kumar Rathod, Anu Malik, Palash Sen and Hariharan leading the charge.
The tenth edition of the Bollywood Music Project, presented by Eva Live, turned Mumbai’s Jio World Gardens into a giant rewind button on October 24. Fans packed the venue for a line-up that mixed playback heavyweights, indie survivors and a finale that kept Shilpa Rao and Himesh Reshammiya for the closing stretch.
But before the late-night slots, the evening belonged to artists who have been the emotional backbone of Hindi film music for decades. The big takeaway was simple: the catalogue still does the heavy lifting.
Roop Kumar Rathod sets a gentle, patriotic tone
Roop Kumar Rathod and his wife Sonali Rathod opened the segment with ‘Tere Liye’ from Veer-Zaara. It was a delicate choice: the original paired Roop with Lata Mangeshkar, and Sonali took on the late legend’s lines. She then carried another Lata classic, ‘Yaara Seeli Seeli’ from Lekin.
Roop’s own run was a short tour through affection and national pride:
- ‘Maula Mere Maula’ from Anwar
- ‘Tujh Mein Rab Dikhta Hai’ from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
- ‘Sandese Aate Hain’ from Border
That final song would return later in the night with a pointed twist.
Anu Malik brings the jukebox and a composer’s pride
Anu Malik arrived with his daughters Ada and Anmol, plus Shahid Mallya and Amit Kumar. His set was a rapid-fire medley of 90s and 2000s chartbusters: ‘In The Night No Control’, ‘Julie Julie’, ‘Jeene Ke Hai Chaar Din’, the ‘No Entry’ title track, and the ‘Judwaa’ doubles ‘Tan Tana Tan Tan’ and ‘Oonchi Hai Building’.
The sharpest moment came when he gathered the performers to talk about ‘Sandese Aate Hain’. After Roop Kumar Rathod had already sung the Border anthem, Anu Malik reminded the crowd that the song was his composition. He quoted the question he says people ask him — whether he actually made the song — and answered that it came from his heart, for the country and the armed forces. Then he led the stage through the song again.
Palash Sen keeps his rights, and his Marathi roots
Euphoria’s Palash Sen was in candid form. He said Bollywood never really opened its doors to him, but that he had no regrets about holding on to his music. Speaking about ‘Maaeri’, he told the audience he was glad he never sold its rights, adding that no one sells their own mother.
The surprise of his set was a pairing with Vaishali Samant on ‘Kombdi Palali’, the Marathi original that Bollywood later turned into ‘Chikni Chameli’ for Agneepath. Palash took the male portions, and the crowd got a brief lesson in where a familiar hook actually began.
Hariharan closes the nostalgia loop
Hariharan and his son Akshay Hariharan kept the classic streak alive with the Roja title track, ‘Nahin Saamne’ and ‘Baahon Ke Darmiyan’. They also recast ‘Chappa Chappa’ as a rock version, before Hariharan finished with ‘Tu Hi Re’.
Shilpa Rao and Himesh Reshammiya were the last two performers of the night, and the audience had been waiting for both. But on this evidence, the long middle of the festival was the story: a reminder that film music’s back catalogue can still fill a weekend when the right voices show up.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com
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