From Dhoka to Life Online to Boys, Shiraz Uppal prepares to make his mark on the Bollywood industry one more time.

He is perhaps the most locally underrated vocalist that we have in the country. The voice that can perhaps best be remembered as that which sang the hauntingly melodic  Roya Re for Mahesh Bhatt`s Dhoka, Shiraz Uppal was also the first Pakistani artiste to be featured as a co-music director (he shares credits with M.M. Karim). Mahesh`s Bhatt`s words “This song can do wonders for both of us” proved to be prophetical as Roya Re went on to become one of the biggest hits of 2007.

Fast following the success of Roya Re, Shiraz Uppal was approached by Bollywood actor/writer Akash Khurana (of Aashiqi, Krishh, Duplicate and Baazigar fame) to feature one of his songs from his Jhuki Jhuki album, Munn Ja Vey, in Akash`s upcoming film, Life Online.

Shiraz Uppal was also nominated for a TMA (The Musik Award) at the function that was held earlier this year. Roya Re was nominated in the category of the best pop song but surprisingly lost to Armaan by Siege.

But coming to Shiraz Uppal`s Bollywood activities, he recently announced that ace Bollywood music director A.R. Rahman had just completed recording Shiraz Uppal for his upcoming film, Boys. Shiraz recorded the vocals for the song featured in the film, Secret of Success, in his studio in Lahore whereas the music and composition was done and recorded in India. Abbas Tyrewala wrote the lyrics of the song and S. Shankar has directed it.

The film was originally released in 2003 in Tamil and was quite successful in the market. It is now being dubbed in Hindi and Uppal has been invited to participate in the soundtrack. The film`s original score in Tamil was also done by A.R. Rahman.

Boys stars Siddarth Narayan who began his acting career with this film. He has made his mark in films across three languages, Hindu, Tamil and Telugu. The heroine of the film, Genelia D`Souza, also acts in local-language films and has Bollywood films such as Masti, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, It`s My Life and Life Partner to her credit.

Previously, Shiraz Uppal had worked with A.R. Rahman on the film Nayak.—HS