Meet the Men Behind Saiyaara: A Kashmiri Engineer Turned Lyricist and a Musician Who Came to Mumbai for 2 Weeks
Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara has earned over ₹100 crore worldwide in its opening weekend, making it a clear hit with audiences.
Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara has earned over ₹100 crore worldwide in its opening weekend, making it a clear hit with audiences. A big reason for the film’s success is its music, especially the title song, which has become a chartbuster. While most of the songs in the movie are sung by Vishal Mishra and composed by Tanishk Bagchi, the title track Saiyaara features were in fresh vocals by Faheem Abdullah. The song was composed by Faheem along with his longtime music partner, Arslan Nizami.
How two musicians from Kashmir and with no connections in the film industry with ended up composing the title track for a Yash Raj Films project is quite a story.
Who Are Arslan Nizami and Faheem Abdullah?
Arslan Nizami was also working as a civil engineer near Leh, while also writing and composing songs in his free time. He often collaborated with Faheem Abdullah, who was previously went by the name The Imaginary Poet, before dropping the stage name earlier this year. Though their music was quite popular in Kashmir, it hadn’t reached a wider audience.
“I used to write songs all the time,” Arslan says. “One day, I told Faheem, ‘Our music isn’t reaching people outside Kashmir. Someone has to step out and do something.’”
That very day, Arslan quit his job and went straight to Faheem. “I told him, ‘Let’s go for it. I want to give our music a real chance.’”
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The hardest part, he says, was convincing his parents. “They’re Kashmiri parents. For them, a stable job means everything.”
Faheem and Arslan decided to take a chance and head to Mumbai, using their savings to support the trip. “We realised we had enough money to stay in Mumbai for just 14 days,” Faheem recalls. So, they gave themselves exactly two weeks to make something happen.
On the 13th day, just before they were about to give up, they met composer Tanishk Bagchi. That meeting changed everything—they were soon brought on board to compose the title track of Saiyaara.
On the Response to Saiyaara
Reflecting on the overwhelming response to the song, Faheem describes it as a “pinch-me” moment. “Just being able to make music is a privilege,” he says. “We never imagined we’d ever do music for a film. That was never even on our minds were until we got that call.”
Now, the duo hopes their breakthrough will open doors for other Kashmiri musicians. “Kashmir is still an undiscovered region when it comes to music in India,” Faheem shares. “There’s so much talent here and what people need is a platform, just like the one we were given.”
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