Watch Jubin Nautiyal and Yohani Embark on a Leh Road Trip in ‘Tu Saamne Aaye’ Video

Singers Jubin Nautiyal and Yohani team up for a breezy, euphoric electronic Hindi pop song on “Tu Saamne Aaye,” whose music video features them on a double date road trip in Leh.

The collaboration – released by T-Series – comes on the back of the duo meeting earlier this year in May. Although the first outcome of that was the release of “Manike” from the Bollywood film Thank God in September – a remake of Yohani and composer Chamath Sangeeth’s runaway hit “Manike Mage Hithe” from 2021 – Nautiyal shared a demo for “Tu Saamne Aaye” with the Sri Lankan singer.

Nautiyal says in a video interview, “When I met her for the first time. She played some of her stuff to me, and I played some of my stuff to her. We decided that she would do a song for me and I would do a song for her.” The demo – featuring lyrics by Nautiyal’s go-to lyricist Rocky Khanna – was just guitar and vocals, according to Yohani. She felt like it didn’t need more, but Nautiyal nudged her on. He adds about the new track, “It’s not got a very Bollywood pattern. it was a big jump from the kind of stuff that I was doing for a while. When she [Yohani] first sang the song, we felt that was just the voice that fits in the palette of music.”

Produced by Prasanna Suresh and featuring bass by Ashwin Shriyan and guitars by Aditya Shankar, “Tu Saamne Aaye” is pretty much that travel song that wants to be on your road trip playlist. The music video – directed by Navjit Buttar – has exactly the kind of ecstatic, escapist vibe with Nautiyal, Yohani, the lead actors Sakshi Joshi and Mateen Vakil taking on a trip to Leh with music, love and celebration on their mind. “It had to be a travel song, because of the beats and how it is flowing. And what better place to travel than Leh,” Nautiyal says.

He goads Yohani – seated next to him during the video call – into talking about going to the freezing locales of Leh when she’s from a wholly tropical climate territory of Sri Lanka. “It was a little bit cold,” Yohani says. Jubin interjects and adds, “It was freezing!”

For Yohani, who is also working on a Sinhalese album alongside collaborations with Indian artists now that she’s set up base in Mumbai, “Tu Saamne Aaye” is among the Hindi projects that is getting her used to the language as a singer. Nautiyal adds that she was often referring to her notes and lyrics during recordings, but the process slowly changed during the recording of “Tu Saamne Aaye.” He says, “I told her to leave the paper aside and just sing. She could sing the whole thing without reading and I think that’s interesting.”

Yohani adds about singing in Hindi, “It’s definitely a challenge for me. I’m still getting used to it, but then I realized that the more songs I do, the more familiar I can get with the lyrics and of course, it helps when the people around you speak in Hindi. It’s always with you. I think in a couple of more months I’ll be more comfortable with it. But right now it’s a good challenge.”

Their rapport and friendship clearly evident during the video call, Nautiyal goes on to turn to Yohani and pose our question about whether they’ll want to collaborate with each other again. “Do you want to collaborate with me again?” he asks. Yohani says, “Of course! Do you?” and they share a laugh.

Nautiyal then provides the more straight-faced answer and says, “I think we’ll be doing a lot of music together. Our voices blend well and we are both in a space where we want to explore new sounds.”

Watch the video for “Tu Saamne Aaye” below.