Beatsmith Karan Kanchan on Dropping ‘Barbie Girl’ on Tour: ‘I Just Want People to Have a Good Time’

Mumbai producer and composer Karan Kanchan is the common link between rap star DIVINE, composer Vishal Bhardwaj’s “Goli Maar” from 1998 crime film Satya and the Anu Malik-composed, Alka Yagnik and Kumar Sanu duet “Baazigar O Baazigar” from 1993’s thriller Baazigar. Kanchan and DIVINE interpolated the chorus to “Goli Maar” for the latter’s song “Satya” off 2020’s Punya Paap and a couple of years on, we heard the explosive flip on “Baazigar” off 2022’s Gunehgar, which sampled the Anu Malik song.

That Nineties Bollywood music is a sure favorite for so many Indians growing up is not lost on Kanchan, but he says “Baazigar” came about because music company Gully Gang’s A&R lead Chinmay Deshpande sent the producer a link with a bunch of songs which were possible to get cleared for sample use. “There were a lot of songs and I came across ‘Baazigar’ and I thought, ‘Everyone knows this song.’” I sampled it and sent a rough beat to DIVINE. He thought it was amazing but said to hold off working on it until the song was fully cleared for sampling,” he says. That was January 2021, with the song finally being ready for release a whole year later at the end of 2022.

Kanchan talks about the allure of Nineties Hindi music and says a lot of artists pushed boundaries. “Even with all the limitations with instruments and also the software, I think they made music that was not only ahead of its time but also timeless in a way,” the producer says. He modestly adds that they may have “started a small trend” or approach with “Satya” and “Baazigar.” Kanchan adds, “That’s a movie song sampled on the album, for a drill kind of beat. I don’t know, maybe the next time it might not be drill… it might be something else.”

While he’s much in demand when it comes to hip-hop projects – he recently knocked off two songs with Ikka and Kannada rapper Rahul Dit-O for music series Red Bull 64 Bars – Kanchan is very much a multi-genre player. Recently wrapping up a tour in support of producer-singer Ritviz’s album Mimmi, Kanchan talks about how he “just wanted the audience to get drunk” on party tunes before Ritviz hit the stage. Starting out in Nagpur, Kanchan played “Baazigar” and “Satya” as well as “Jama Kar” by Mumbai’s MC Altaf ft Seedhe Maut but also Eurodance mainstays like “Barbie Girl” by Aqua and “Brazil” by Vengaboys. “I just wanted people to have a good time,” Kanchan says.

The audience and accolades show that the producer has come quite a far way compared to his days making frenetic Japanese music-inspired trap and bass music (“I need to revisit that,” Kanchan says) and ghost production. “Even with DIVINE, I used to work with a lot of brands, and clients who are very specific about what they want. I’ve been trying to develop that skill of being able to deliver to different audiences, different clients; I try to understand what they’re looking for,” he adds.

Up next, Kanchan’s production work sees him make his way into Punjabi music circuits. He adds that there are a “lot more collaborations with different artists and different spaces of music.” The producer wants more of his diversity to come through with forthcoming releases, doubling down on how he can work with singer-songwriters like Ramya Pothuri but also make rap-metal beats or get in the studio with EDM stars like KSHMR on a hip-hop album. “There’s so much more which is just waiting to be released. Only once these songs are out, I can say that I’m doing different kinds of stuff,” Kanchan says.