Ravi Dubey on collaborating with Badshah for 'Toxic': It's a good story to tell and it has got that Intensity!

One of the most adorable couples of the Telly town, Ravi Dubey and Sargun Mehta recently announced their upcoming collaboration with Badshah for the song ‘Toxic’. The Sony Music song is written by Badshah himself and is composed by Payal Dev, featuring Ravi Dubey and Sargun Mehta. The teaser of the song was released recently and the song is all set to premiere tomorrow i.e. 26th May 2020. Sargun and Ravi have shot the video at home following the quarantine guidelines.

We at India Forums got in touch with Ravi where he spoke to us about his collaboration with Badshah, experience shooting at home, challenges faced and much more:

So first of all, tell us something about your collaboration with Badshah and how was the shooting experience like?

So Badshah paaji called us the other day saying that he has a song and he was wondering if we can all like collab together. He sent me the song and it is very different from what Badshah Paaji has done so far. The majority of his songs are all party songs, super duper hit songs but this is a very different genre. This is a song about a relationship that is extremely damaged, as the name of song’s name suggests 'Toxic'. Both the partners who were once in love are now suffering in the relationship. So the song basically spoke about that. The song is very far from our own identity, from who me and Sargun are. 

So Paaji was like I completely understand if you think that it doesn't go with your relationship, it's completely okay if you don't want to do it but I want you to give it a thought. Me and Sargun also thought that it is important to understand that there is no relationship in the world that is immune to this, and the song was an awesome song. We immediately said yes but then of course there were challenges, I also felt that in the lockdown, not even with a tripod and only with a smartphone, the conceptualisation, the story design and all, how will we achieve it. Considering all those challenges, I told Paaji that we'll do it but I don't know if it'll go well. The teaser got launched yesterday and all of us were just happy that it is trending on YouTube, so it was good, the response to the teaser has been very good. 

As you mentioned that the genre of the music video is very different, what's the one thing which attracted you the most about the project?

The way the song is, the song is about a relationship and as time passed by, the relationship has really suffered a lot. Now the question is that is there a possibility of repair or the damage is just done. I just found that it's a good story to tell, it's got that intensity and the kind of edge, it's not a linear song, it's a very non linear song. There was no reason to not associate, all the reasons were a green signal to collaborate. 

As the song is all set to release tomorrow, is there any nervousness or excitement as the fans have already loved the teaser. 

Yes, there's a lot of nervousness. All of us have literally put our night and day on this. Even the editor who is not here, who's in Punjab, we are constantly on video call, looking at footage, that mostly happens late in the night and up until early in the morning. So all of us, whether it is the editor, Sony team, Badshah Paaji, the entire PR team, Sargun, my friend Danny who handles the camera, all of us are on our toes for the last ten days. 

Since you mentioned that you had to coordinate with Badshah and everyone through video call, how challenging was the entire process?

Badshah Paaji was so accommodating, the moment you'll call him, he'll always be ready and excited and enthusiastic about it. The challenge was that since the video is shot without any equipment, without any extra lights, all we had to rely on was the sun. The sun is constantly moving, you can't shoot the entire day, we could only shoot between 4.30-6.30 because beyond that it was not the light that we wanted and we didn’t have any assistance of an extra light or any other extra equipment. So we had to shoot in the timeline and be very specific of the shots we have to take. So there was the technical challenge but other than that whether it is Payal ji, whether it is Badshah Paaji, the entire team Sony Team and the marketing team, everybody has been very helpful and supportive. 

Signing off, Ravi said, "Sargun and I, wherever we are is because of the unconditional love that the fans send us. I am very thankful for that and I always cherish and appreciate this unconditional love that they send us. Toxic launches tomorrow and I hope that it encourages relationships that before they give it up, they must give their relationship the best shot. Before you give it up, give it a shot."