Bollywood Music in 2024: The Hits That Ruled Playlists
Who was Hindi cinema’s busiest composer this year? And who overtook Taylor Swift to become Spotify’s most-followed artist this August? We find out.
It was a middling year for Hindi films at the box-office, but Bollywood soundtracks, which had conceded some space on the music charts to pop and hip-hop in the post-pandemic period of 2020-2023, dominated the top spots for much of 2024, partly due to the spillover success of songs from Animal (2023). Here are the hits that ruled playlists.
The song that showed Vicky Kaushal could use his powers for a Punjabi song of his own: ‘Tauba Tauba’ from Bad Newz
Somewhere along the way, Vicky Kaushal became one of the most powerful social media influencers in the Punjabi music industry. His online endorsement helped several Punjabi pop songs trend on short-format video platforms, most prominently Riar Saab and Abhijay Sharma’s ‘Obsessed’ and Karan Aujla’s ‘Softly’. When the makers of the rom-com Bad Newz pulled off something of a coup by getting singer and rapper Aujla to record his first Bollywood track, it was almost as if he, and the Punjabi scene as a whole, was returning the favour. Yet again though, it was Kaushal who propelled the infectious tune’s popularity with his loose-limbed moves in the Bosco Martis-choreographed music video that somewhat ironically challenged other influencers with its not-so-easy-to-replicate hook steps.
The song that was the jewel in Sachin-Jigar’s chart-crowning year: ‘Aaj Ki Raat’ from Stree 2
When I first heard ‘Aaj Ki Raat,’ I could have sworn it was a remake. I checked the credits twice but it turned out to be an original. I wasn’t the only one who felt this way about the electro-ghazal with a qawwali chorus, which simultaneously reminds one of both Begum Akhtar and ‘Besharam Rang’ from Pathaan (2023). Call it canniness or genius, but Sachin-Jigar have become masters of the art of channeling their influences to create new tunes whose sounds are comfortingly yet annoyingly familiar. These are the guys behind the best Arijit Singh-Amitabh Bhattacharya song not by Pritam. It’s a hit formula that not only made Stree 2 one of the most successful Hindi film soundtracks of recent times, but also enabled them to take over the title of Bollywood’s busiest composer from Amit Trivedi. They contributed to as many as six OSTs this year.
The song that heralded the year of Diljit: ‘Naina’ from Crew
His charming turn in the comic caper Crew might have been a supporting role but Diljit Dosanjh’s Afrobeats-influenced ‘Naina,’ his contribution to the soundtrack, became his biggest hit of 2024. In April, he staged what has been reported as the largest-ever Punjabi music concert outside of India for an audience of 54,000 in Vancouver’s BC Place. That was before he brought his Dil-Luminati world tour to India, tickets for which sold out in minutes. There wasn’t a week in which he wasn’t in the news or on the charts, with all the activity leading to a surge in his back catalogue: he had no less than nine songs on Apple Music’s year-end Top 100.
The song that further solidified Arijit Singh’s supremacy: ‘Sajni’ from Laapataa Ladies
The appearance of Arijit Singh on a soundtrack is a near-guarantee that at least one of its songs will be a hit irrespective of the film’s fate. However, sometimes even Arijit needs a little help up the charts. ‘Sajni,’ the delicate ballad composed by Ram Sampath for Laapataa Ladies, released in February but it took off only at the end of April, following the movie’s premiere on Netflix. It was the second Arijit track from an Aamir Khan production with such a delayed trajectory, after ‘Tere Hawaale’ from Laal Singh Chaddha (2022), which reached the top ten in May 2023 almost a year after its parent film opened at the box-office. They were just two of the seemingly countless smashes that contributed to Singh overtaking Taylor Swift to become the most-followed artist on Spotify in August. He ended the year by retaining his position as the highest-played act on the audio-streaming service in India for the sixth time in a row, while globally he was its eleventh most-streamed musician in 2024.
The songs that demonstrated the right way to do recreations
We’re probably never going to be rid of “recreations” nobody asked for, but if we’re going by recent trends, then the best way to do them is to enlist the original composers. These are the covers that met with the most success: electro-pop duo Mitraz’s remix of their 2020 viral smash ‘Akhiyaan’ into ‘Ankhiyaan Gulaab’ for Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya, and Canadian-Indian pop star Raghav’s reworking of his 2005 UK top ten ‘Angel Eyes’ into the title track of the same film. There was also singer/songwriter Aditya Rikhari’s redo of his 2022 hit ‘Samjho Na’ into ‘Jaana Samjho Na’ for Bhool Bhulaiaya 3. In each of them, the new versions mainly added uptempo beats to make the songs more dance-friendly but at least they didn’t ruin the source material. An even better way was using just an older hook line to fashion something new, as in the case of Jaani’s ‘Dekha Tenu’ from Mr. and Mrs. Mahi, which interpolated Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’s party-starting ‘Say ‘Shava Shava’ into a sweet ballad.
Most-streamed Hindi film songs of the year (2024 releases)
1. 'Sajni' from Laapataa Ladies, Ram Sampath, Arijit Singh and Prashant Pandey (T-Series)
2. 'Ankhiyaan Gulaab' from Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya, Mitraz (T-Series)
3. 'Naina' from Crew, Diljit Dosanjh, Badshah and Raj Ranjodh (Tips)
4. 'Aaj Ki Raat' from Stree 2, Sachin-Jigar, Madhubanti Bagchi, Divya Kumar and Amitabh Bhattacharya (Saregama)
5. 'Tauba Tauba' from Bad Newz, Karan Aujla and Yeah Proof (Saregama)
6. 'Tum Se' from Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya, Sachin-Jigar, Raghav Chaitanya, Varun Jain and Indraneel (T-Series)
7. 'Dekha Tenu' from Mr. and Mrs. Mahi, Jaani, Aadesh Shrivastava, Sameer and Mohammad Faiz (Sony Music)
8. 'Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya' from Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya, Raghav, Tanishk Bagchi and Asees Kaur (T-Series)
9. 'Aayi Nai' from Stree 2, Sachin-Jigar, Pawan Singh, Simran Choudhary, Divya Kumar and Amitabh Bhattacharya (Saregama)
10. 'Soni Soni' from Ishq Vishq Reloaded, Darshan Raval, Jonita Gandhi and Rochak Kohli (Tips)
Source: Spotify