Vishal Punjabi, popularly known as Wedding Filmer, had earlier spoken about how he created the magic of the wedding film for Bollywood stars Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra. Talking to YouTube channel DJ Simz, Vishal described how he turned the song ‘Raanjha’ on its head to ensure Kiara made an unforgettable entrance.
This is the original song from the movie ‘Shershaah’, in which Kiara and Sidharth had shared the screen. The song is about loss and longing, having a deep connection with the tragic fate of a soldier. “It’s a song about death and destruction,” Vishal explained. Since ‘Raanjha’ became an important part of Kiara and Sidharth’s cinematic journey, it made sense that Kiara wanted it as part of their wedding. The mood that told of the true message of the song, however, did not fit the celebration.
Vishal and his team got creative, changing the lyrics to make the theme shift from loss to love and reunion, something suitable for a wedding. “What didn’t make sense was the lyrics of the song. So what my team and I did was, we changed the lyrics of the song. We made them positive and happy, and made it about, ‘I’m coming to you,” Vishal shared. The result was an endearing rendition of ‘Raanjha’, giving fans the happy ending that didn’t get in the film. The remix went on to be the highest-played wedding song on Spotify in 2023.
Vishal also joked that no other country could do it. “In some other countries, perhaps they cannot because of copyright,” he laughed. But when Karan Johar, who owns the rights of the song, was there at the wedding itself it was easy to get a NOC. “If somebody does this in the UK, they’d get sued,” he quipped.
Along with the re-created track, Kiara and Sidharth needed a turnaround as quickly as possible for their trailer of marriage. Vishal’s team worked on site editing all night long with the full setup at the hotel so that the film is absolutely polished for the couple. “Indian weddings span for multiple days, which gives us more time to start working,” he said, crediting the process to the Indian wedding tradition.
From the celebrity couples of Anushka Sharma-Virat Kohli and Deepika Padukone-Ranveer Singh, which he has filmed, Vishal added that the actual importance of a wedding film lies in bringing families together. And that is precisely what Kiara and Sidharth did for their fans around the globe, beautiful and very personal to everyone, so one could not get enough of it.
