Amaal Malik: AR Rahman sharing my song ‘Tum Aaogey’ is enough for me to believe in myself as an artiste – Times of India

People are loving ‘Tum Aaogey’. How does it feel?
I am truly emotional as it’s the 90th song of my career, and yet it feels like my first release. ‘Bell Bottom’ is a very special film and composing for it was an honour. The story needed a powerful, simple, yet emotional melody and I had to give it my all. This time even more so as I was coming back with Akshay sir and Nikkhil Advani almost five years after ‘Airlift’. It also marks my brother Armaan Malik’s debut as Akshay Kumar’s voice, and was also my first film for Pooja Films. There is a certain honesty and purity in this melody that will remain with the listeners. I’m glad that just within a day of its release people are celebrating the song and with the kind of reaction I’m getting, it seems like they have really connected to it.

What kind of reactions have you been getting?
Young boys and girls have been sending me DMs and tweets about how emotional the song is making them, yet it is also healing them in a way. So many of them have family, friends, and relatives in the army, and they are relating to every word of the song. They have sent me paragraphs on how the song makes them well up right from the first line.

I think a lot of credit goes to the writer of this song, Rashmi Virag, who has beautifully crafted every verse; not a single lyric is random or out of place. Kudos to Azeem Dayani, the music supervisor who heard the rough version and instantly reacted. I’m glad that my director Ranjit (Tewari) sir, the producers–everyone immediately loved the song; the video is very emotional as well.

AR Rahman, too, shared the song…
AR Rahman sharing the song is enough for me to believe in myself as an artiste all over again. He is the boss of Indian music and a prolific composer–someone the whole country and world looks up to. His support means the world to me.

What makes ‘Tum Aaogey’ different?
‘Tum Aaogey’ isn’t just another patriotic song sung to preach patriotism. Its release just coincided with Independence Day and Rakshabandhan. It’s an emotional song with simple, hard-hitting words, and a pure vocal rendition. It’s more of a homecoming song, sung in hopes that our heroes return home safely from war. It’s a song about belief, it’s a song for every relationship–husband-wife, father-son, the love of a sister, the yearning of a lover. ‘Tum Aaogey’ feels like the embrace of a true friend when you’re down.

Which patriotic song is your all-time favourite?
I really loved ‘Teri Mitti’ by Arko Mukherjee and ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ by Rahman sir.