Everyone these days is raving about a band called The Vamps, who are collaborating with Ajay Devgn for the movie Shivaay. Earlier, the band worked with Vishal-Shekhar on a song. But this is nothing new. Here are a few hit collabs
Photo Credits: PG2. LEAD_3
Tata Young
Way back then, when Uday Chopra tried his hand at acting, Yash Chopra bought down the hottest Thai singer at the time, Tata Young, to perform the title song for the movie Dhoom. The movie was a hit; Tata and the song Dhoom were even bigger. This was probably one of the first collabs, one that kickstarted it all.
Snoop Dogg
If there was probably ever a peculiar fit in Bollywood, it would be this one. Snopp Dogg is one badass rapper. He’s one of the most influential rappers of all time who has worked with Dr Dre, Tupac and others. No one would ever think that Snoop would ever step into the masala-themed world of Bollywood film music. They were wrong. Snoop Dogg rapped about “Ferraris, Bugattis and Maseratis" in a song that strung together hip-hop and bhangra with a simple chorus (“Singh is Kinng, Singh is Kinng…”), and had the D-O.Double-G. giving a“what up to all the ladies hanging out in Mumbai.” Snoop even dressed the part with a Sikh turban, a sherwani for the video (shot in Chicago)
As for why he came down and experimented with music here - “Lots of hip-hop tracks sample Indian music, and a lot of their music sounds like it was influenced by hip-hop,” he said. “We’re putting together something real big” in India, that will include collaborations, live shows and “more movies with some of my Bollywood homies.” This was in 2009. Not much has happened yet, apart from Akon’s song with SRK.
Kylie Minogue
Apparently, Akshay Kumar couldn’t get Kylie out of his head. The star (Kumar) already worked with Snoop Dogg in Singh is King and thought of adding another international star feather to his cap. Enter Kylie, famous for a plethora of songs. The pint sized actress sang, and performed the 'Chiggy Wiggy' item number for the AR Rahman composed soundtrack from Kumar’s 'Blue', after meeting him after the 2008 BAFTAS, where she had presented him with an award for his work on the soundtrack of Slumdog Millionaire. The song was alright, but the video was sizzling hot, and no, it was not because of Akshay’s moves.
Orianthi Panagris
There's a good chance you've never heard of her, but Orianthi is one of the best guitarists in the world. She’s performed with Michael Jackson and was his lead guitarist for the grand This Is It tour that never happened, as well as Carlos Santana, Slah, Carrie Underwood and more. She’s now touring with Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora, across the world. The reason we’re talking about this wonderful blonde guitarist is because her brilliant work is on the song Sadda Haq, for Ranbir Kapoor’s Rockstar. A.R. Rahman met Orianthi during one of his visits to LA, had her hear the 'Rockstar' track before she agreed to sign on for the movie. Saadda Haq was reportedly recorded at Rahman's Los Angeles studio, and director Imtiaz Ali viewed it all on Skype.
JoSh
Now that this list is coming together nicely, we’ll probably have to thank Akshay Kumar for blurring the lines between Bollywood and international music, from an Indian perspective. Chaddi Wale Yaar, by Indo-Canadian bhangra/hip-hop group 'JoSh' features in Akshay Kumar's co-production, 'Speedy Singhs'. The movie, starring Vinay Virmani, Russell Peters, Camilla Belle and Anupam Kher has a soundtrack composed by Sandeep Chowta. The band's “electronically-inspired and house-based…" music was popular in the Canadian ethnic community, amongst other non-desi fans, and so Kumar got them in to do a song in a movie about a Sikh hockey team. The film is not bad either, you know.
Akon
He’s now living a low profile life, helping the underprivileged in Africa, but when Akon was a musical superstar, he was BIG. So Shah Rukh Khan, not to be outdone by Akshay’s forays into the international music scene for source artists, brought Akon down to lend his talents to the song Chammak Challo, for Ra.One, with composers Vishal-Shekhar. He also sang another song, Criminal, for the movie. This was probably one of the biggest hit songs done by a foreign artist in Bollywood, even though most of it was autotuned in typical Akon style.
