A catchy tune, some dirty drops and a whole lot of fun lyrics. Bandi kamaal — a collaboration between Sandeep Vyas of Vyas Brothers (with DJ Sanjeev) and rapper-producer Pablo — ticks all the boxes. The April 30 release is a Hindi-English song which talks about a powerhouse woman (played by Tridha Choudhury in the video), who can handle herself in the boxing ring as well as cruise around in fancy cars. The song — written by Prayas Makkar (from Delhi) — is a mix of rap, backed by Afrobeat with Pablo and Sandeep Vyas’s voices keeping it together. A candid chat with Sandeep.
How did the collaboration between you and Pablo happen?
He’s a rapper and I have been singing for the longest time. He has a problem singing in Hindi (laughs). So we did the song together.
How long ago did you start working on the song?
We shot this in January and we chose a boxing range. And Tridha was in town for a day only. So she could only give us the day and we were scrambling for a location (laughs). The range is in Kidderpore, in the middle of nowhere! The guys were pretty much changing on the fly because it was such a small space. We were so focused on finishing the shoot because we couldn’t get another date from Tridha.
You pack some cool punches in the video....
The boxing bags were filled with stone and sand. But I had to show some karate chops and so ended up punching the bag without wearing gloves. The next day, my knuckles were black and blue.
So it was a tough video shoot!
We shot around 24 hours, non-stop. We started shooting on January 20 morning and finished on January 21, after which I went for a show.
Being an artiste is not easy; it involves so much more than just singing.
Absolutely, and I am so blessed. I have the best life and job because I get to do what I want to do. I’m living my dream, even though I have no shows right now. There is no business and we’re not working and we don’t know when the next gig will come through.
How did you and Pablo work on the song?
In most videos you will see a dude driving a Jag and he’s the cool one. So we turned it around and now she (Tridha Choudhury) comes in and owns the place and we think she appears quite badass. We also show her driving a fancy car. I am proud of the video.
What do you think of Pablo’s skills?
He is crazy. When we did the song we were not even signed by Bullman Records. We decided to do the song because it is a great number and it’s doing well and we have close to a 600k views on YouTube. There are so many (Instagram) Reels being shot with the dance steps. This is how the song grew organically.
Do you have any other collaboration coming up?
We have another song coming out next month; it’s called Sola ane such, which means ‘absolute truth’. We had done this song before we had done Bandi kamaal. The song is about daily struggles but we’ve flipped it around... it’s never been easy. As a singer you’re not accepted and you’re mocked. While growing up, you have to deal with people who don’t believe in you. That’s Pablo and my story. He had a job but he quit. So the song is about how we’ve made it on our own and it comes with an animated video.
More about Pablo
Name: Upamanyu Dutta, aka Pablo; 26
Years active: 2012 onwards
Genre: Hip-hop/trap/reggaeton
Influences: Drake/Skrillex/Bad Bunny
Milestone: Number one rap album on iTunes India (Khaos kartel)
His thoughts on Bandi kamaal:Pablo kehnda tu hai bandi, bandi kamaal hai... it’s definitely the first thing I’ve ever said in Hindi on any of my songs. It was really fun working with Tridha and having her as the biggest part of this video — the image of a strong and independent woman. I had a great time producing this reggaeton song and it’s always great to work with Sandeep as well. Prayas did a great job at writing the number.