EXCLUSIVE: Adnan Sami talks about ‘Ishq Tamasha’, BLASTS society’s HYPOCRISY: “We glorify Devdas, Romeo-Juliet and Laila-Majnu, but MOCK people who fall madly in love...we call them ‘Devdas ki aulad’”

After wowing audiences with the quirky yet progressive ‘Lipstick’, Adnan Sami is back with the intense dance number ‘Ishq Tamasha’. The track combines the emotional depth of a romantic ballad with contemporary pop-rock production and expressive visual storytelling. The strikingly mounted video also evokes memories of Adnan Sami’s creatively filmed music videos from the early 2000s. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, the legendary singer-composer spoke about ‘Ishq Tamasha’, his evolving musical sensibilities and a lot more.

‘Ishq Tamasha’ is quite intense and impactful and also completely different from ‘Lipstick’… I have a whole host of songs that are in the pipeline. We started off with ‘Lipstick’ and it had a completely different vibe from whatever I have done in the past. ‘Ishq Tamasha’ is a completely different song from that. They don’t have any connection whatsoever, as you can tell. This is a very intense romantic song. In the past, I have done a lot of songs from very different types of genres – songs like ‘Kabhi To Nazar Milao’, ‘Bheegi Bheegi Raaton Mein’ and ‘Tera Chehra’ on one hand and also ‘Lift Kara De’, ‘Gela Gela’, ‘Aye Udi Udi’ and ‘Kiss Me Baby’ on the other. I have also done qawwali. So, I have these different genres that are in me, and they reflect a lot of who I am as a musician and as a person. They also reflect my upbringing. You are what you listen to and what you are influenced by. Since I have lived all over the world throughout my life, obviously there’s so much of influence that I have picked up wherever I lived.

In the forthcoming future, I am going to be sharing all of that. The forthcoming songs would also stand out in terms of their arrangements, themes, texture, etc. It is exciting for me as a musician. I finally got into a zone where I decided that I want to bare all (smiles). I don’t want to get stuck into any particular genre.

Why do you think this is the right time for you to bare all? Because even the listener has evolved. In the past, the listener was prepared to listen to very limited music. There was film music, which had its own texture and genre. Then there was a little bit of experimentation on the independent side. So, you needed to work around that perimeter of music. Now, formats have changed and streaming has come in.

Earlier, a listener would buy cassettes. You had a certain amount of money and you would walk into the music store. Most of the people could buy just 1 or 2 cassettes based on their budget. As a result, the listener would buy only that album that he had heard on radio or seen its music video and was comfortable with it. Accordingly, the person would buy those two cassettes and listen to their songs to death (laughs). There were a hundred other cassettes of other films and albums. But the listener would not buy them, citing ‘Maine inke gaane nahin sune aur mere paas paise nahin hai udaane ke liye’. And it was fair; even I used to do the same as a student.

Consequently, everyone was roaming around that perimeter of music. But with streaming coming in, things have improved. Let’s say that you have paid Rs. 100 to access a subscription of a music app. By paying just Rs. 100, you could listen to the songs from the entire world. Now, because you have the facility, you will listen to different sounds. You’ll say ‘Hey, I like that’. Suddenly, your mind opens up. You are far more receptive towards all kind of music as you have got the exposure.

And that’s not all. Today, we have international acts coming to India of all kinds of genres that one didn’t expect that people would like. Yet, they are filling up stadiums. This makes me very happy. I grew up with so many different genres and compositions of all kinds. But I was not able to present them to the listener as I knew that he or she was not possibly accustomed and tuned to take it in. Hence, I stuck to a particular format. Now that the listener has become attentive and receptive to such genres, I am really enjoying this as now, I can go anywhere. So, now I have decided to do just that (smiles). It allows me to open up my creative banks.

‘Ishq Tamasha’ is an intense romantic song about a man who is so madly in love that he worries he may be making a fool of himself and become an object of ridicule. How did the idea for the song come about? We, as a society in India and elsewhere, have this tendency. When we read about Romeo And Juliet, Heer Ranjha, Laila Majnu or watch Devdas, we glorify them and say ‘Waah…romance ho toh aisa ho’! But when we see somebody doing the same in real life, we mock them. Why this hypocrisy? We say ‘Majnu ban gaya hai, pagal ban gaya hai, Devdas ki aulad’. They’ll also say all kinds of nonsense like ‘Kya hua agar woh chali gayi? There are many fish in the ocean’! Your parents may tell you, ‘You’d look back at this and you’ll laugh at yourself’. When you’re going through it, you feel small and dejected. You wonder, ‘Why are you making fun of me? I am just in love with somebody’. You also feel ‘Main nahin, yeh log pagal ho gaye hai’!

‘Ishq Tamasha’ is about this hypocrisy. By and large, most people go through it.

Also Read: Adnan Sami releases new single ‘Ishq Tamasha’ with Zee Music Company; explores love through music and dance

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