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| A still from the Jai ho number in Slumdog |
New Delhi, March 3: Oscar tune for the Congress’s marching band.
The Congress has acquired the rights to Jai ho, the Slumdog Millionaire song that won the Academy award for best song, from music distributor T-Series for an undisclosed sum.
The chartbuster, written by Gulzar, sung by Sukhwinder Singh and set to music by A.R. Rahman, will be “suitably amended” before being used as the party’s signature song in the election campaign. So- urces said Jai Ho’s “soul and spirit” would be retained.
The attempt will be to convey the song’s sense of “grit, optimism and hope”. The party will approach the trio behind the winning number to carry out the improvisations.
Ever since the song bagged awards and won accolades at the Golden Globe and Bafta, the Congress’s publicity pundits had been proposing that Rahman’s talents be tapped for the campaign. But nobody was sure if he would oblige.
With time running out, sources said the Congress decided to do the next best thing: grab the rights before another party did.
Since Slumdog made a mark at the Oscars, the Congress has tried to claim credit, saying India wouldn’t have been able to make its presence felt on such prestigious world forums had it not been for the reforms, initiated by the party’s government in the 90s, and its “inclusive outlook”.
Gujarat chief minister and BJP leader Narendra Modi pooh-poohed the claim, arguing the Congress deserved the kudos — not for Slumdog but for the slums portrayed.
“Because of the Congress we have slums. Because of slums we have a movie on them. As a result we have awards. So the credit for the Oscars goes to the Congress,” Modi said in Delhi today. Sources said the Congress was thinking of suing Modi for his “libellous” remarks.
UP seat tussle
The Samajwadi Party today stepped up pressure by announcing candidates from two Uttar Pradesh seats the Congress had desperately sought: Farukkhabad and Pratapgarh.
The announcement comes two days after Samajwadi top guns Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh met Sonia Gandhi to reach an understanding on seat sharing. The Samajwadis have already declared 64 nominees, including the two today, for the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats.