Shahzad Roy is a socially and politically conscious pop singer. So it appears. Otherwise why would you make songs that aim at awakening a slumbering nation or touch upon issues that relate to the collective snoozing of society? This refers to the song Laga Reh that in recent past became the talk of the town and was met with commercial success. Now Shahzad Roy is at it again, albeit on a different soil. He has sung a song titled Bullshit for an Indian film Khatta Meetha (to hit cinema screens soon) filmed on none other than Akshay Kumar, the Bollywood actor who is known for his on-screen wackiness and off-screen antics. The song is not about a bull in a china shop. It pretty much sounds like a variation of Laga Reh except this time round it pertains to Indian society which is no less sleepy and to its politicians who are no less venal. Listening to the song definitely brings to mind the same message conveyed in Laga Reh of 'let the nation sleep', a snide remark.
“Akshay Kumar likes my songs, so it was his initiative to include Bullshit in the film. He wanted it to become the theme song for the film Khatta Meetha. We had a lot of meetings before coming up with the final version of the number. What's noteworthy here is that the entire song was made (from lyric writing to composing its melody) in Pakistan. One of the stanzas is the same as you've heard before; we've changed the tune a bit to suit the mood of the situation,” said Roy while speaking exclusively to Images on Sunday.
Shahzad definitely sounds excited working for a project that has the 'international' tag on it. “You see the difference is that I could've made a romantic song and it would've done really well keeping the Indian film market in mind. But I chose not to. I wanted it to carry a message, something that I believed in,” he opined.
“The problem with Indian society like ours is not the gag on freedom of speech, but it's after you've freely spoken that you're voice is muzzled,” the singer argued.
Indeed it's a problem. But then there are many other issues in society, in every society, that make a conscientious man to mull over. Surely, the singer must be thinking about making songs on them as well. Fingers crossed!