Anil Kapoor has never done qawwali on screen before. That changes with the music video for India Ke Top 1% – The Anil Kapoor Show, which Star Plus put out days after unveiling the teaser over the weekend.

The track leans into the format the genre is known for, call-and-response energy, group vocals building to a peak, and it doubles as the sound of a show that's betting on scale. India Ke Top 1%, produced by Banijay Asia, puts 100 contestants on one stage to test everyday thinking and decision-making. Kapoor hosts. The tagline running through the promotional push is "Baat Khatki Toh Jeet Pakki."

Ganesh Acharya choreographed the number, and Kapoor says that partnership is what made a genre he'd never attempted feel workable. "Performing Qawwali for the first time was a new and exciting experience for me, and I wanted my performance to complement the show's distinctive personality," he said. "Ganesh Acharya understood that perfectly and brought his signature flair to the choreography, making the entire experience even more enjoyable."

On the track itself, Kapoor frames it as tonal shorthand for the whole show. "India Ke Top 1% is a celebration of how differently people think, and the Qawwali captures the show's vibrant, energetic and entertaining spirit," he said. "Its infectious energy reflects the excitement that viewers will experience as 100 contestants come together to test their everyday thinking on one grand stage."

That's a lot of adjectives for a promo video, but the intent is clear enough. Star Plus is stacking assets, teaser, music video, a previously revealed amphitheatre-style set built to hold a hundred contestants, before the actual premiere date lands. Each piece is doing the same job: sell the scale, sell the host, sell the format.

What's missing so far is a hard launch date. The rollout has been staggered week to week, teaser first, now the anthem, presumably a full trailer or premiere announcement next. For a show built around a live-arena feel and a 100-person cast, that's not surprising, these things tend to build slow and loud.

What is notable is Kapoor stepping into a format this specific at this stage of his career, and doing it as a promotional centrepiece rather than a one-off cameo. Whether audiences respond to a qawwali as a reality-show anthem is a separate question from whether the show itself lands. Star Plus clearly wants the song to travel on its own before the format even starts.

Next up: an actual premiere date, and whether the amphitheatre set gets its own reveal before contestants walk in.