Leo (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

## Lokesh Cinematic Universe

**Leo (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)** is the soundtrack album to *Leo* and contains songs that were inspired by the film and composed by Anirudh Ravichander.

The album featured seven songs, with four of them being previously released as singles. It was planned to be released on September 30, 2023, which would have been coincided with the audio launch event in Chennai, before its cancellation.

The album was released via Sony Music India on October 19, 2023, the same day as the film's release.

## Production

*Leo* soundtrack is composed by Anirudh Ravichander, in his fourth collaboration with Vijay after *Kaththi*, *Master* and *Beast*; third with Lokesh after *Master* and *Vikram*. The audio rights for the film were purchased by Sony Music India for ₹16 crore (US$2.0 million). *Leo* was intended to be a songless film, similar to Lokesh's *Kaithi* with Sam C. S. being in consideration to score the film which turned to be false. *The Times of India* reported that the soundtrack will have two songs. However, Lokesh, during an interview with *Behindwoods* in early October, stated that the film would have a total of six songs.

All the songs in the film were written by Vishnu Edavan, Lokesh's assistant director, who also previously contributed for *Master* and *Vikram*. The English tracks in the film are penned by Heisenberg. The songs were recorded during June–September, and the background score in mid-September, with the re-recording for the film completed within 10 days.

## Release

Before the album's release, four of the songs—"Bloody Sweet", "Naa Ready", "Badass" and "Anbenum"—released as singles. Two other songs, which later revealed to be as "I Am Scared" and "Villain Yaaru", were released as part of the extended soundtrack.

The soundtrack was released on October 19, 2023, alongside the film's Indian premiere. The album, however, did not include the aforementioned tracks, but consisted of the earlier released three singles, along with "Glimpse of Antony Das" and "Glimpse of Harold Das", the tracks from the glimpse videos revealing Sanjay Dutt and Arjun's characters, and had separate releases, along with the track "Lokiverse 2.0"—a second version of the "Lokiverse" track that integrated the metal clanging sound of "The Hot Biriyani" from *Kaithi*, "Vikram Title Track" and "Rolex Theme" from *Vikram*, along with "Badass" and "Ratata".

On October 20, 2023, Anirudh said that apart from the aforementioned tracks, two other songs "Ordinary Person" and "Ratata" would be released as part of the extended soundtrack.

### Singles

"Bloody Sweet", the first song composed for *Leo*, was also cited by Anirudh as the fastest track he composed to that point. The track that featured in the two-minute promo video, was performed by Anirudh and Siddharth Basrur, and was released on February 3, 2023, the same day as the film's promo release, albeit not being part of an official single on the album.

"Naa Ready" was the first single from the film, sung by Vijay, along with Anirudh and Asal Kolaar, the latter performing rap portions; it was the fourth time Vijay had sung for Anirudh's composition after previously doing so for "Selfie Pulla" from *Kaththi*, "Kutti Story" from *Master* and "Jolly O Gymkhana" from *Beast*. The song released on June 22, 2023, coinciding with Vijay's 49th birthday. Although it was positively received by the audiences, it garnered criticism from politicians and activists over the glorification of smoking and drugs. This resulted the Central Board of Film Certnstructing (CBFC) instructed the team to modify the visuals and lyrics, with immediate effect on September 9, 2023.

A song performed by Anirudh and Shakthisree Gopalan, was intended to be released as the second single from the album on September 19, 2023 (later deciphered to be "Villain Yaaru") but was not released on that date. Instead, "Badass" was released as the second single from the album on September 28, 2023.

Lalit, through the X (formerly Twitter) Space, announced that a family song was composed for the film, set to be released as the third single from the album titled "Anbenum", the song was sung by Anirudh with Lothika Jha performing the female vocals instead of Shakthisree, who would make her playback debut in Tamil, and was earlier scheduled for release on October 9, 2023. However, it was officially released two days later on October 11, 2023.

### Cancelled audio launch plans

At the CII-Dakshin Media and Entertainment Summit, Lalit who had participated in the event, said that he initiated plans for an audio launch event in southern part of Tamil Nadu, instead of Chennai, and had zeroed on Madurai, Coimbatore and Trichy as the venues. In earlier August, it was reported that the film's audio launch will be instead held either in Malaysia or Dubai, and they tentatively planned for the event at Axiata Arena indoor stadium in Kuala Lumpur during late-September or early-October. However, plans for the event at Malaysia was being cancelled and the team instead planned to conduct the event at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai. Lalit later explained the reason for the cancellation as the venue was not available for their planned schedule.

It was reported that the event would be held on September 30, 2023 at the said venue. However, on September 27, 2023, three days before the event was to be held, the producers confirmed that the event would be cancelled citing safety constraints, while claiming that it was not due to political pressures. Trade analysts claimed that the overflowing requests of passes for the event had led the producers to cancel it, as around 70,000 people had pre-booked their passes for the event, while the venue itself could accommodate an audience of 6,000–8,000 people, and that poor management could lead to an unprecedented mishap. They cited the catastrophic incident that happened at A. R. Rahman's concert three weeks prior in Chennai as another reason for the cancellation.

### Extended soundtrack

The track listing for the extended soundtrack was revealed on October 20, 2023, which included four unreleased songs. Along with the track list, the first song "Villain Yaaru" was released. It had lyrics written by Vishnu Edavan with Anirudh and Shakthisree performing. The second song "Ordinary Person" was released on October 23, 2023. It had lyrics written by Heisenberg and was performed by Nikhita Gandhi. The third song "I Am Scared" was released on October 28, 2023. The fourth song "Ratata" was released on November 9, 2023.

## Videos

LEO - Jukebox - Thalapathy Vijay - Anirudh Ravichander - Lokesh KanagarajLEO - Bloody Sweet Promo - Thalapathy Vijay - Lokesh Kanagaraj - AnirudhLEO - Naa Ready Song Video - Thalapathy Vijay - Lokesh Kanagaraj - Anirudh RavichanderLEO - Anbenum Video - Thalapathy Vijay - Lokesh Kanagaraj - Anirudh RavichanderLeo - Badass Video - Thalapathy Vijay - Anirudh RavichanderLEO - Glimpse of Antony Das - Thalapathy Vijay - Lokesh Kanagaraj - Anirudh RavichanderLEO - Glimpse of Harold Das - Thalapathy Vijay - Lokesh Kanagaraj - Anirudh RavichanderLEO - Lokiverse 2.0 Theme Video - Thalapathy Vijay - Anirudh Ravichander - Lokesh KanagarajLeo - Ratata Video - Thalapathy Vijay - Anirudh RavichanderLeo Das Entry - LEO - Thalapathy Vijay - Lokesh Kanagaraj - Anirudh Ravichander
### Lyric Videos

LEO - Naa Ready Lyric Video - Thalapathy Vijay - Lokesh Kanagaraj - Anirudh RavichanderLEO - Badass Lyric - Thalapathy Vijay - Lokesh Kanagaraj - Anirudh RavichanderLEO - Anbenum Lyric - Thalapathy Vijay - Lokesh Kanagaraj - Anirudh RavichanderLEO - Ordinary Person Lyric - Thalapathy Vijay, Anirudh Ravichander, Lokesh Kanagaraj, NikhitaGandhiLEO - Im Scared Lyric - Thalapathy Vijay - Anirudh Ravichander - Lokesh KanagarajLEO - Villain Yaaru Lyric - Thalapathy Vijay - Anirudh Ravichander - Lokesh Kanagaraj
## Trivia

* *Naa Ready* emerged as Spotify's most-streamed Tamil track of 2023, as per Spotify Wrapped 2023.

### Controversies

* The track "Ordinary Person" which was released as the second song from the extended soundtrack, was heavily inspired from the Otnicka and Duke Luke single "Peaky Blinder" which served as an influence to the British period drama television series *Peaky Blinders*. Otnicka claimed he was unaware of the song being sampled for this track and took to Instagram to address the same while he said that the situation was unclear as of now.
* After the song "Naa Ready" released, Pattali Makkal Katchi president and MP Anbumani Ramadoss asked Vijay to stop promoting smoking scenes in the film. Chennai-based RTI Selvam filed an online complaint against the film with the Chennai Police Commissioner asking for action against Vijay under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The complaint stated that through the song, Vijay was glorifying consumption of drugs. On 26 June 2023, Selvam submitted his complaint in person as well. A ban on the film was also demanded. As a result, the song was censored with less smoking scenes and some lyrics were modified under the suggestion of the CBFC. The background dancers, who were a part of the song, claimed that despite repeated requests, the makers are yet to pay them their full remuneration for their work.
	+ As a result, The CBFC has now censored the chartbuster song and their suggestions have left fans upset. They have asked the makers to replace a few lines glorifying smoking and drinking. They have also asked to replace the close-up shots of Vijay smoking in addition to increasing the size of the statutory warning.

### See Also

> *Leo (Original Background Score)*
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