Rupam rocks with Jannat

He is a rock star in its truest sense. One of the superheroes of Bengali rock, the lead singer-composer-lyricist of popular Bangla band Fossils, Rupam Islam is all set to make his debut as a singer-performer in Mukesh Bhatt's forthcoming Emraan Hashmi-starrer Jannat. TWF correspondent Sreya Basu catches up with Rupam in Kolkata to speak on Jannat experience.

How did Jannat happen?

Music composer Pritam had earlier approached me to sing for Anurag Basu's film Metro. Since Pritam was planning to continue the Metro Band even after the film was made, he asked me to leave Fossils. This was and is impossible for me-Fossils is my passion and inspiration for my songs and singing. Besides I am what I am because of Fossils. Later he asked me to re-record my popular song Hasnuhana in Hindi. But that too was postponed due to some technical problems. It was the third time that I got a chance to work with Pritam and the rest fell into place by itself.

Tell us about the song that you have sung in the film.

The song Jannat Jahan is my debut as a playback singer in a Hindi film. It is the first hard rock number to be used in a Bollywood flick. Pritam strongly believed that I am the best person who can do justice to the song.

What is special about this song?

The song has a strong negative philosophy and the is what attracted me to it. It says money is heaven. In my Bengali song Bicycle Chor (Bicycle Thief) I wrote now-a-days stepping into teens means a time to decide whether one will become a murderer or a thief. This is the philosophy that runs today's world. Money is the key factor of life and it does not matter how one earns it. The story of the film revolves around cricket betting and match fixing. Hence the song acts as a perfect backdrop for the film.