In today’s times, there are few songs that remains etched in the listeners’ mind years after they have released. Only a handful of songs boast of the kind of melodic and lyrical quality that makes you want to revisit them again and again. ‘Akhiyaan Milavanga’ from ‘Commando 3’ is one such song. Today, the song completes two years of its release. One of the things that made the song special were the poetic verses written by lyricist Sahil Sultanpuri.
Talking about the importance of the song in his life, Sahil says, “Akhiyaan Milavanga proved to be a turning point in my career. In the past, I had worked with composers with Ismail Darbar and filmmakers like Neeraj Pandey. I always gave my best as a lyricist but I never received the kind of love and appreciation as I did for this song.”
The song was composed by Mannan Shaah who has to his credit films like ‘Commando’, ‘Commando 2’ and ‘Namaste England’. It was the first time the lyricist and the composer worked with each other.
“I had loved many of the songs composed by Mannan bhai and wished to work with him for a long time. A common friend recommended my name to him. It was wonderful working with him on the song. Apart from being a gifted composer, he is also a wonderful warm being. He is extremely warm and polite. He gave me the tune on phone. I told him I will come back to him with the lyrics the next day. He asked me to come after two days. We met again and cracked the song quickly.”
Though it has been two years since the song released, fans are still making covers of it.
“Recently, Maithali Thakur, the renowned classical singer, did a cover version of the song. If people are still making cover versions of the song after two years, it shows that it continues to be relevant. Vidyut Jammwal is seen as an action hero by everybody but we had to portray him as a romantic hero through this song. To his credit, he performed the song exceptionally well on the screen. I feel he would be as good a romantic hero as he is an action hero”, he says.
The male vocalist on the song was Arijit Singh. This was the first time the lyricist got an opportunity to collaborate with the prolific singer.
“When I met Arijit for the first time, he told me that he was surprised to see me as he expected the lyricist of this song to be a 70 year old. When I asked him the reason behind that, he told me that while reading the verses, he felt it must be written by an older person who has gone through a variety of life experiences. He found the lyrics to be deep and meaningful. I hope to write a lot more songs which Arijit lends his voice to.”