Ahead of AR Rahman’s 53rd birthday, filmmaker Srijit Mukherji announced a collaboration with the maestro for the Hindi adaptation of his acclaimed film Jaatiswar (2014), which was centred on the historical figure Anthony Firingee. Mukherji posted a screenshot of a Zoom call from a couple of months ago on which he discussed the project, Hai Yeh Woh Aatish Ghalib, with the Oscar-winning music director and the veteran lyricist and director. Mukherji will reportedly replace Firingee with the Urdu and Persian poet Mirza Ghalib as the central figure of the film.
A couple of months back, it was a dream come true zoom call for me as I pitched the Hindi adaptation of Jaatishwar, 'Hai...
Posted by Srijit Mukherji on Tuesday, January 5, 2021
Rahman will compose nine songs for the Hai Yeh Woh Aatish Ghalib album. Bengali songwriter, composer and activist Kabir Suman composed the songs for Jaatiswar, winning the Best Music Direction (Songs) National Film Award. Three other artistes bagged National Awards for the film: Rupankar Bagchi won the Best Male Playback Singer Award while Sabarni Das was honoured with the Best Costume Design Award and Vikram Gaikwad was bestowed the Best Make-up Artist Award.