The Dirty Picture is the soundtrack to the biographical musical drama film of the same name directed by Milan Luthria and produced by Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Motion Pictures and ALT Entertainment. Starring Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi, Naseeruddin Shah and Tusshar Kapoor, the film's soundtrack featured six songs composed by Vishal–Shekhar and lyrics written by Rajat Arora. The soundtrack was released on 24 November 2011 and was commercially successful, with the song "Ooh La La" becoming chartbuster.
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Background and release
The duo Vishal–Shekhar composed the film's soundtrack, having previously worked with Luthria on Taxi No. 9211 (2006) with Rajat Arora, besides serving as the screenwriter, also penned down lyrics for the songs. As the film is set during the late-1970s and 1980s, Vishal and Shekhar wanted to emulate the music from that era after previously doing the same for Om Shanti Om (2007). The music for the film consisted of potential dance numbers that would integrally connect with the storyline.
For the song "Ooh La La", Vishal and Milan insisted on veteran composer Bappi Lahiri to perform the vocals alongside Shreya Ghoshal; Lahiri previously associated the director and composer by singing "Mumbai Nagariya" from Taxi No 9211. On the lyrics of the song, he described it as bold but not being vulgar, further adding "Today, there are so many songs with vulgar lyrics. Also, the situation needs to be taken into consideration. The lyrics were required to be bold."
After signing the deal with Balaji Motion Pictures, T-Series acquired the music rights for the film along with Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum (2012) and Once Upon ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara! (2013). The soundtrack was released on 4 November 2011 at the Inorbit Mall in Malad, Mumbai with the cast and crew in attendance. Vidya further performed the song "Ooh La La" live at the event.
Reception
Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave the music an overall rating of 4 out of 5 describing that the music "takes the expected route and delivers what it promised" and chose "Ooh La La" and "Ishq Sufiyana" as picks from the album. Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com gave the album a rating of 2.5 out of 5 and said the opening track of The Dirty Picture is the album's only star. Vipin Nair of Music Aloud gave 7 out of 10 and wrote "A soundtrack from Vishal-Shekhar that for most part stays true to the title The Dirty Picture. Better lyrics would have added to the allure though." Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog described it as a "functional soundtrack".
Controversy
In May 2012, Saregama India Ltd. filed a lawsuit against Balaji Motion Pictures and T-Series regarding copyright infringement as the song "Ooh La La" was ripped off from "Ui Amma, Ui Amma", a song performed by Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle from the film Mawaali (1983), where Jeetendra (who is now the chairman of Balaji Motion Pictures) was the lead actors in the film. Since the label acquired the music rights, it asked the producers to secure appropriate license for the use of the track, but Balaji Motion Pictures denied any similarities to both of the tracks; with no appeal, Saregama then moved to Calcutta High Court claiming ₹2 crore as a compensation. Bappi Lahiri who composed music for Mawaali claimed that the songs were not similar in any manner and were independent and distinct from each other, while Shankar Mahadevan also a similar certificate regarding the same. The court did not restrain Balaji Motion Pictures, but instead reduced the compensation amount to ₹50 lakh.