'Singh is Kinng' hires British band, Pritam upset

Mumbai, May 10 (IANS) Composer Pritam Chakraborty is upset with the makers of 'Singh Is Kinng' that has Akshay Kumar in the lead role for roping in Britain's popular Bhangra band RDB and American rapper Snoop Dogg to compose a rap-bhangra for it.

'Singh Is Kinng', the tale of a singing dancing sardarji, is produced by Vipul Shah and directed by Anees Bazmi. Akshay is a keen student of Punjabi-style singing and wants RDB to do a full-on sardarji-goes-bananas track. He also wants Snoop Dogg to do his own thing for the bhangra track.

'Yes, I have heard they have recorded a track with RDB and Snoop Dogg. If it is true, it is totally against our contract. They need to get an NOC (no objection certificate) from me, and I'd never give it because I've worked very hard on the soundtrack,' Pritam, who is official composer of the film, told IANS.

This isn't the first occasion when Pritam has faced an unwanted international presence in one of his soundtracks.

'For 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa' too I think Akshay wanted to bring in RDB. But I took it as a challenge and composed the 'Hare krishna hare ram' track. He loved it and dropped the idea.'

Although Pritam is upset with this development, he sees little chance of rectifying the tilt.

He said: 'My first impulse is to fight, but then I love composing for Akshay. He carries my tunes to a different level. Audiences the world over connect with him. Composing a chartbuster for Akshay means you've given your song a long shelf life through his superstardom.

On second thoughts, he said: 'Let Snoop Dogg and RDB have their moment. The rest of the 'Singh Is Kinng' album is mine.'

Akshay gave quite a few hits last year including 'Namastey London' and 'Welcome' and is trying to consolidate his global success in 2008 and that's why he has decided to incorporate this song.

'In 2008, Akshay wants to consolidate his overseas market in a big way. His two purported global films this year are Anees Bazmi's 'Singh Is Kinng' and Nikhil Advani's 'Chandni Chowk To China'. Akshay is going all out to give a global touch to both the action-musicals,' said a source close to the project.