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Filmi (Hindi: फ़िल्मी संगीत) is Indian popular music as written and performed for Indian cinema(Filmi means "of Films" not of Music, it may be used as Filmi Actor or filmi attitude and many more). Music directors make up the main body of composers; the songs are performed by playback singers and it makes up 72% of the music sales in India.^[1]

Filmi music tends to have appeal across India and overseas, especially among the Indian diaspora. Songs are often in different languages depending on the industry, for example in Hindi or Tamil. Playback singers are usually more noted for their ability to sing rather than their charisma as performers. Though these singers may release solo albums, their performances in film soundtracks tend to be more noticed due to the widespread appeal of movies.

At the "Filmi Melody: Song and Dance in Indian Cinema" archive presentation at UCLA, filmi was praised as a generally more fitting term for the tradition than 'Bombay melody' "to suggest that the exuberant music and melodrama so closely identified with the Hindi commercial cinema produced in Bombay (Mumbai) are truly pan-Indian."^[2]

Origins[link]

In the earliest years, filmi music was generally Indian (classical Carnatic, Hindustani, and village folk) in inspiration; over the years, Western elements have increased significantly.^{[citation needed]} However, film soundtracks continue to be very diverse, sometimes fusing genres or reverting to entirely classical music. Examples of this can be found throughout the history of filmi music.

Music directors[link]

R. C. Boral, Harishchandra Bali, Pankaj Mullick, Anil Biswas, Naushad, Khawaja Khurshid Anwar and S. Rajeswara Rao were noteworthy music directors of the 1940s. Rao, who scored the 1948 Tamil Chandralekha, the first all-India hit, continued music directing in Chennai until the 1980s. The 1950s and 1960s, included music composers like Shankar Jaikishan, S.D. Burman, O.P. Nayyar, Madan Mohan, Hemant Kumar, C. Ramchandra, Roshan, Vasant Desai, Kalyanji Anandji ^[3] and Khayyam in Hindi film music. K. V. Mahadevan, Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, G. Devarajan, V Dakshinamoorthy and M. S. Viswanathan were active music directors for more than 35 years from the 1950s.

As Indian cinema segued into the 1960s and 1970s, pop artists like R.D. Burman, Bappi Lahiri and duos like Nadeem-Shravan and Jatin-Lalit gave filmi a stronger western flavor with composers Ilaiyaraaja and Raveendran who rose to fame during the 1970s and 1980s in Tamil film music.

Major musical forces in the 1990s and 2000s have included A. R. Rahman, Harris Jayaraj, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Vishal-Shekhar, Vidyasagar, M. Jayachandran, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Deepak Dev, Johnson, Anu Malik, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Salim-Sulaiman, etc. A. R. Rahman, who was described by Time magazine as "India's most prominent movie songwriter,"^[4] is widely accepted to be the most internationally recognized Indian musician.

Playback singers[link]

A playback singer is a singer who pre-records songs for use in films. The singer records the song and the actors or actresses lip-sync the song in front of the cameras, a form of singing that is characteristic of the Indian subcontinent. The songs of a film, the quality of the music and its music director (composer), lyricist and singer have often determined the success of a film. Film soundtracks are sometimes released before the film itself, resulting in a disparity between the soundtrack and the songs appearing in the film.

Kundan Lal Saigal was one of the earliest playback singers in the Indian music industry. Notable playback singers include Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, and Sonu Nigam.

Lyricists[link]

Full article: Hindi songs

In the 1950s and '60s, lyricists like Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, Rajinder Krishan, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Bharat Vyas, Shakeel Badayuni, Qamar Jalalabadi, Anand Bakshi, Jan Nissar Akhtar and S.H. Bihari wrote lyrics of many classic filmi songs. Lyrics tended towards the literary and drew heavily on contemporary Urdu and Hindi poetry. The south has seen poets like Kannadasan, Vairamuthu and Vaali rise to prominence, in Tamil poetry and literature alongside Vayalar Ramavarma, P. Bhaskaran, O. N. V. Kurup in the Malayalam music industry.

Popularity ratings[link]

Binaca Geetmala, Ameen Sayani's popular Hindi language radio show before satellite television took over in India sometime in the 1990s, gave weekly popularity ratings of Hindi film songs (akin to the Billboard Hot 100 list of songs). It ran in various incarnations from 1952 to 1993, and annual lists of the most popular songs were played at year-end. The list was compiled on the basis of record sales in India.^[5] Currently, Hindi filmi songs are sold on tape and CD compilations, played as promos and in programs on various television channels and radio stations, with different popularity ratings claiming different songs as being on the top. In an annual exercise, a net-based effort RMIM Puraskaar lists all important Hindi film songs of the year, in addition to awarding songs for various categories.

Accusations of plagiarism[link]

Because popular music directors score a great many films over the course of a year, accusations of plagiarizing abound. For example, one production number in Dil (1990) is based on Carl Perkins' Blue Suede Shoes, sung with Hindi lyrics. Of late the Indian film industry has been gaining visibility outside India, and the legal risks of plagiarism have been gaining importance. Some producers have actually paid for the musical rights to popular Western songs, as in Kal Ho Naa Ho's song, "Oh, Pretty Woman". Plagiarism has also existed within India, with several music directors in Bombay cinema lifting tunes from other "regional" industries.

There have also been accusations of plagiarism against foreigner musicians borrowing from Hindi filmi songs. For example, "Don't Phunk with My Heart" by The Black Eyed Peas was largely based on two 1970s filmi songs: "Ye Mera Dil Yaar Ka Diwana" from Don (1978) and "Ae Nujawan Hai Sub" from Apradh (1972).^[6] Both songs were originally composed by Kalyanji Anandji and sung by Asha Bhosle.^[7] Another example is "Addictive" sung by Truth Hurts, which is lifted from Lata Mangeshkar's "Thoda Resham Lagta Hai" from Jyoti (1981). This led to the copyright holders of the original song filing a lawsuit against DJ Quik and Dr. Dre, the producers of "Addictive".^[8] Filmi music composed by A. R. Rahman (who would later win two Academy Awards for the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack) has frequently been sampled by musicians elsewhere in the world, including the Singaporean artist Kelly Poon, the Uzbek artist Iroda Dilroz, the French rap group La Caution, the American artist Ciara, and the German band Löwenherz,^[9] among others.

Wider success for filmi[link]

Filmi is also making converts and exerting influence beyond the usual Desi audiences, with many Western music stores today carrying Indian music compilations. As early as 1978, the synthpop pioneers Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto of the Yellow Magic Orchestra produced an electronic album Cochin Moon based on an experimental fusion between electronic music and Bollywood-inspired Indian music.^[10] Later in 1988, Devo's hit song "Disco Dancer" was inspired by the song "I am a Disco Dancer" from the Bollywood film Disco Dancer (1982).^[11]

Baz Luhrmann showcases the song "Chamma Chamma" from China Gate (1998) in his 2001 movie Moulin Rouge. Another 2001 film Ghost World featured Mohammed Rafi's song "Jaan Pehechan Ho" from the 1965 film Gumnaam. The 2002 song "Addictive", sung by Truth Hurts and produced by DJ Quik and Dr. Dre, was lifted from Lata Mangeshkar's "Thoda Resham Lagta Hai" from Jyoti (1981).^[12] The Black Eyed Peas' Grammy Award winning 2005 song "Don't Phunk with My Heart" was inspired by two 1970s Bollywood songs: "Ye Mera Dil Yaar Ka Diwana" from Don (1978) and "Ae Nujawan Hai Sub" from Apradh (1972).^[6] Both songs were originally composed by Kalyanji Anandji, sung by Asha Bhosle, and featured the dancer Helen.^[7] Scores from Chennai Tamil films have appeared in productions such as Lord of War and The Accidental Husband. A. R. Rahman rose from fame in the Chennai film industry to become one of the most popular current music directors and has had a musical Bombay Dreams, playing in London and New York, and scored several projects outside India. Ilaiyaraaja won the Gold Remi Award for Best Music Score jointly with film composer M. S. Viswanathan at the WorldFest-Houston Film Festival for the Tamil film Vishwa Thulasi (2005).^[13]

The song "Chaiyya Chaiyya", originally composed by A. R. Rahman for Dil Se.. (1998), has also been well received around the world, making several top 10 world music lists and has even been featured in several American movies. The song was in both the opening scene and credits of Spike Lee's Inside Man. Rahman's earlier soundtrack for Roja (1991) was included in TIME's 10 Best Soundtracks of all time in 2005.^[14][15][16] Hindi filmi music has reached an even wider global audience due to the success of the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, also composed by Rahman.

See also[link]

• Indian film music directors
• Playback singer
• Tamil cinema
• Telugu cinema
• Bollywood songs
• Bollywood
• Cinema of India
• Filmi qawwali
• Balkan pop
• Turbo-folk
• Chalga
• Manele
• Skiladiko
• Laïka

References[link]