"Chaiyya Chaiyya" is an Indian song from the 1998 Bollywood film Dil Se.., composed by A.R. Rahman, written by Gulzar, and sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Awasthi. It quickly became popular upon the film’s release, and its music video, directed by Mani Ratnam and starring Shah Rukh Khan and Malaika Arora, gained cult status. The song is based on Sufi music and Urdu poetry. The Tamil version is called "Thaiyya Thaiyya", which was also popular among the Tamils. The Dil Se..soundtrack album, where the song appeared on, sold six million units in India. In 2002, the BBC World Service conducted an international poll to choose the ten most popular songs of all time. Around 7000 songs were selected from all over the world. According to the BBC, people from 155 countries voted "Chaiyya Chaiyya" ninth in the top 10 songs.
History
The lyrics of "Chaiyya Chaiyya" are based on the Sufi folk song "Thaiyya Thaiyya" with lyrics by poet Bulleh Shah. Singer Sukhwinder Singh originally suggested the song to A.R. Rahman who was looking for a Punjabi devotional song to include on the soundtrack of Dil Se... Gulzar subsequently rewrote the lyrics and changed the name to "Chaiyya Chaiyya". "Chaiyya Chaiyya" reached the top of the charts in India and became popular in the United Kingdom. In an Interview with called "Sadhanai Tamilargal" with Mani Ratnam, AR Rahman and Vairamuthu, Rahman stated that the song was originally composed for his album Vande Mataram. But as it didn't fit in, he decided to show it to Mani Ratnam, who loves these kind of catchy tunes. The very first time hearing the song, Mani Ratnam decided to shoot the song on a train.
Music video
The video was filmed on top of the Ooty train in mountainous Tamil Nadu, southern India, while actor Shahrukh Khan dances with model/actress Malaika Arora and other dancers. The film was directed by Mani Ratnam and recorded by Santosh Sivan. The choreography was completed in four and half days by Farah Khan. No major back projections or post-production special effects were used in the music video. Malaika Arora, one of the performers, recalls: "Would you believe it? Well, the "Chaiya Chaiya" song was shot exactly as you see it on the screen: No camera tricks, no back projection, no post-production special effects!" She also said that "...One of the unit members tripped and hurt himself. Other than that, things were safe."
Popular culture
The song was featured in the opening of the second act of the musical Bombay Dreams, in which the train sequence from Dil Se.. is recreated on stage. Remixes of the song were used in the opening and closing credits of the 2006 filmInside Man. The opening credits, set over shots of the robbery crew driving into Manhattan, feature an abridged version of the original with additional trumpet accompaniment, and the closing credits feature a hip-hop-inflected remix featuring Panjabi MC. The song was featured in the background in episode 13 of the American sitcom Outsourced. The song was featured in the credits sequence of the 2006 film Inside Man. The song was featured in the pilot episode of Smith. A cover of this song was performed in episode 5 of season 5 of . The original track and a live version of "Chaiyya Chaiyya" are featured in AR Rahman's compilation album, A. R. Rahman – A World of Music. The song was used during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi on 3 October 2010. "Chaiyya Chaiyya" became famous in Indonesia in 2011, after Norman Kamaru, a policeman from Gorontalo, Indonesia recorded himself lipsync-ing it and uploaded the video to YouTube. The name of the video is "Polisi Gorontalo Menggila". On 17 May 2015, recording artist Kurt Hugo Schneider with Sam Tsui, Vidya and Shankar Tucker, uploaded a mashup video on YouTube titled . It garnered 300,000 views in 3 days. Shah Rukh Khan tweeted it, appreciating their work. As of January 2016, the YouTube video has 25 million views. The a cappella group Penn Masala covered the song in their seventh album, Panoramic. Eammon, one of the characters of Kamila Shamsie's novel Home Fire looks up the video and lyrics of the song in his attempt to learn Urdu.
