How many more Bollywood re-creations in 2019?

By Bryan Durham - January 11, 2019

We’re headed towards the end of January and already, Bollywood is two re-creations old. Several songs on the charts — that are a carry-forward from releases of the year gone by — are also known re-creations. Is 2019 going to be a re-creation of 2018?

Are we being too cynical? Well, you can’t blame us! A cursory look at last year’s releases will reveal the numbers. Two songs out right now — the title song of Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga and Fraud Saiyyan’s Chamma Chamma — are re-creations and the films are set to release in February.

We have 11 months to go and it already feels like we can expect 2019 to beat 2018’s record by a mile.

While Rochak Kohli has never disappointed us in the re-creation department, we have a love-hate relationship with Tanishk Bagchi numbers that call into question the necessity of the re-creations. And don’t get us even started on the others who try. And fail miserably.

And it’s not just the quality of re-creations that irks us. The frequency at which they’re being churned out for no rhyme or reason, is what has our goat.

I’ll ask this again: Is originality dead? Or is there a demand from listeners that producers (as suppliers) cater to? Can we then not expect mediocrity than actually something of value? And what happens when a good re-creation gets lost in a sea of mediocre ones?

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