Composer Amaal Malik and singers Armaan Malik and Neeti Mohan revisit the recording sessions behind the 2016 track, from its EDM-tinged sound to why it still plays at weddings.
Ten years on, Sau Aasmaan is still the song people reach for when they want that particular kind of Bollywood breeziness. The track from Baar Baar Dekho, composed by Amaal Malik and sung by Armaan Malik and Neeti Mohan, marks its tenth anniversary this year, and all three have gone back to talk about how it came together.
Armaan Malik says the hardest part was never the melody, it was the balance. "Creating a proper danceable Bollywood love song with that breezy, summery, almost EDM-esque sound is actually quite challenging because you want it to feel big and euphoric without losing the romance and soul of the melody," he said, crediting Amaal for pulling that off and Kumaar's lyrics for keeping it grounded. He also flagged Azeem Dayani's role as music supervisor in shaping the final sound.
Amaal remembers the sessions differently, more as a hangout than a job. "Armaan and Neeti brought such amazing energy to this peppy romantic number," he said, adding that director Nitya Mehra's picturisation gave the song its own identity on screen. He called it one of the most beautifully shot tracks of that year and said listening to it now still takes him back to what he described as a little musical road trip.
Neeti Mohan's memory of the song leans more emotional. "It has that rare quality of making you want to pack your bags, fall in love and just get away somewhere beautiful," she said, pointing to the natural, unforced energy the three of them found in the studio. She also brought up something the composers didn't, the song's afterlife at weddings and school dance performances, which she says is what tells her it actually landed with people.
None of this is new information about the film itself. Baar Baar Dekho, which paired Katrina Kaif and Sidharth Malhotra, wasn't a commercial juggernaut, and Sau Aasmaan was always the one track from its soundtrack that outlived the conversation around the movie. That the song's chemistry on screen matched its sound on record is presumably why it kept getting played long after the film left theatres.
There's no reunion tour or re-release planned around this anniversary, just three artistes marking a decade with a song that, by their own account, still surprises them with how much people love it. For now, that's the whole story: a track that turned ten, and the people who made it taking a moment to notice.
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