Akshay Kumar takes his singing to a new level

Akshay Kumar rapped with Snoop Dogg for his film ‘Singh is Kinng’ (2008). And now, in Neeraj Pandey’s ‘Special 26’, he’s taken his passion for singing to the next level. The Bollywood superstar, who calls himself a ‘bathroom singer’ with a keen ear for music, has rendered the romantic song ‘Mujhme Tu’ with an honesty that is rare. The music of the film, which also stars Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill and Kajal Aggarwal, was launched yesterday. On his playback debut, Akki says, “In Singh is Kinng, I just did a few lines with Snoop Dogg. But this is technically my singing debut. Frankly, you have to credit my director Neeraj and music composer MM Kreem for this song. Kreem sahab made me sit at the harmonium for six to seven hours and urged me to give it a try. He said, ‘Akshay do not bother about the sur and taal. You just sing with sincerity. I will do the rest.’ I blindly followed his advice and I would like to dedicate this song as a Valentine Day’s gift to all lovers.” Says Kreem, “Mujhme Tu is a very energetic song and though Akshay’s version is not yet in the album, we plan to include it soon. When we were working on the softer, orchestrated version of the song, I thought it would be good to get him to sing. I spoke to Neeraj, who was excited, but asked me to first check if Akshay’s pitch was good. He rehearsed the song for 15 days and we recorded it in less than an hour’s time. He has a rich voice and I am happy with the outcome.” Adds Neeraj, “Akshay took an instant liking to the song. We decided to shoot a video with him and wanted him to lend his voice to the track. He isn’t a trained singer but he was so well-versed that by the time we recorded the song, it was very easy.”