Inside the Making of ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’s’ Raucous Soundtrack

For all its over-the-top yet all-too-familiar approach to telling a Bollywood story, the new Netflix series The Ba***ds of Bollywood needed an equally adrenaline-pumping soundtrack to match.

The series creator and director, Aryan Khan, who had already assembled a star cast for the series, brings some of the biggest desi music stars under one massive, 13-track soundtrack. Released via T-series, it’s not very often you see everyone from Punjabi stars Diljit Dosanjh and Karan Aujla in the same album as hitmakers Anirudh Ravichander, Arijit Singh, Jubin Nautiyal, Vishal Dadlani, Shilpa Rao, B Praak, Raja Kumari, Jasmine Sandlas, and Faheem Abdullah. Composers Shashwat Sachdev and Ujwal Gupta handled most of the songs between themselves, with Khan contributing to the lyric writing as well as the creative direction.

While the likes of Singh and Ravichander on the same track swiftly propelled songs like “Badli Si Hawa Hai” to prominence, the ballad “Tu Pehli Tu Aakhri” also has accrued millions of streams. Karan Aujla’s action-packed “Movie Scene” is steadily climbing up, as is Dosanjh’s contribution, the rock-aided “Tenu Ki Pata” composed by Gupta.

A relatively lesser-known composer on the soundtrack, Gupta also offers up the hyped up high-pitched banger “Ghafoor” that’s been trending on social media. Rao, who also teamed up with “Sajna Tu Baimaan” for Sachdev (alongside fellow star artist B Praak), tells Rolling Stone India that it was “absolutely fun working on both tracks.” She adds, “Tried new ideas, and Shashwat and Aryan both grabbed it and pushed me further to go all out.”

B Praak says he brought raw energy to “Sajna Tu Baimaan.” He adds, “[The song] is packed with energy and intensity, and I felt it had to capture both pain and power at the same time.” The hitmaker shouts out The Ba***ds of Bollywood creator as well. “I truly feel Aryan has created something fearless and fresh with this show; it’s layered and it’s unapologetic.”

The tempo goes even higher with Raja Kumari’s songs “Revolver” and “Everybody Knows.” The rapper and singer-songwriter likens making “Revolver,” similar to working on the title track from Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Jawan. There’s an unmistakable hip-hop quality but also a fiery, cinematic edge, with “Everybody Knows” being a fully English track that’s meant for “Lord Bobby,” as Raja refers to acting veteran Bobby Deol’s character Ajay Talvar. “Revolver,” which also marks a tick on Raja Kumari’s wish list to sing on the same track as Vishal Dadlani, is more of a “hero anthem” according to the artist.

She adds, “I got so much direction from Aryan—he’s the one that called me, sang the melody to me, and described the feeling he wanted from the song.” Raja had got a call while in Los Angeles, so the recordings were remote, but the conversations with Khan ranged from scene descriptions to telling her what he wanted to “feel as the viewer.” Raja adds with a laugh, “Every time he would sing the melody, I kept teasing him that he’s got such a great voice that we should work on his album next.”

Ujwal Gupta can credit his time studying at the University of Southern California as his introduction to Khan, who was pursuing a filmmaking course at the time. Gupta, who adds a rock edge to The Ba***ds of Bollywood soundtrack, says, “Over the course of our time there, we got to understand each other’s work ethic and creative process, and we even collaborated on a few class projects. So, when the idea for this show came about, he reached out and offered me the chance to work on it. I didn’t have to think twice; I jumped at the opportunity.”

While he’s been known for a few pop hits, Gupta got to scale new heights with “incredible artists.” He adds, “It became much larger than I could’ve ever imagined for my first big outing.”

Among the earliest songs that came to life was “Tenu Ki Pata,” written about four years ago when Khan had first conceptualized the narrative of The Ba***ds of Bollywood. Gupta says he was in Chennai when work began, but the process was collaborative and Khan was decisive. “He [Khan] even lent his vocals to some of the demos, and in the case of ‘Tenu Ki Pata,’ we actually ended up using his voice in the final track, which gave it a unique touch,” the composer adds.

Gupta worked on a handful of songs, but also the background score for the show, creating “character themes” with Khan as well. “It was very fulfilling for me personally since scoring a full-length film is something I hope to do in the future,” he adds. Gupta also turned vocalist on the Sachdev-composed “Ghafoor.” Throughout, Gupta justifies the rock edge because he’s primarily a guitarist. “A lot of the initial ideas for the show started with guitar riffs, and they naturally fit into the soundscape Aryan had envisioned,” Gupta adds.

On the lyrical side of the soundtrack, prolific writer and poet Kumaar was attached to the project. “The brief was very clear from the beginning: the songs had to carry the rebellious, youthful spirit of the show while still connecting emotionally with the audience,” he says. Having written some of the earliest hits from The Ba***ds of Bollywood, Kumaar worked in romance even within a mostly expletive-filled, edgy show. The writer says, “‘Tenu Ki Pata’ was another fun one, it had this cheeky, playful vibe that instantly brought energy into the room.”

The Ba***ds of Bollywood clearly has Khan’s music taste imprinted all over. Kumaar lauds Khan for having a “sharp ear for rhythm and rhyming. “He was deeply involved and very particular about the mood and tone he wanted the songs to reflect. He constantly reminded us that the music had to serve the story, not just stand alone.”

Running with that clarity, Kumaar struck the right balance. “I wanted to bring a sense of defiance and individuality that complements the show’s gritty, larger-than-life energy, while also giving audiences a more human layer to connect with emotionally,” the lyricist says.

Just like the acting cast, the music lineup on The Ba***ds of Bollywood has plenty of worlds-collide energy. It’s launched new composers like Gupta, even while leaning on can’t-fail hitmakers. For Raja Kumari, it even led to a full circle moment of singing with Dadlani. “Om Shanti Om [Bollywood movie] was a very important film and soundtrack to me – it appears on my vision board. I have this part of my voice that’s really rock and I love to use it, so now that Vishal and I have done a song remotely, hopefully we can perform it together or make more music together. I’m a fan of his work,” she says.