99 Songs

***99 Songs*** is an Indian Hindi-language musical romance film directed by Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy, and co-written and produced by A. R. Rahman originally in Hindi (in his maiden production banner YM Movies), who thus makes his debut in both roles, apart from composing the original score and songs. The film co-produced by Ideal Entertainment and distributed by Jio Studios, stars debutants Ehan Bhat and Edilsy Vargas in lead roles, alongside Aditya Seal, Lisa Ray and Manisha Koirala among others in supporting characters. The film is a sensual story about art and self-discovery of a struggling singer who wants to be a successful music composer.

Rahman had written the script for the film in 2011, with Eros International initially announced to produce the film in August 2013. After Eros backed out of the project, Rahman stated that he will produce the film under his own banner YM Movies. This film is the debut directorial of Vishwesh, who worked as an advertisement filmmaker before Rahman offered him to direct for his production. Vishwesh, also a musician, is well known for the Mumbai-based hardcore band Scribe. The scripting and finalizing process continued till four years before the film was officially announced in June 2015. The casting process is done by Mukesh Chhabra; around 1,000 auditions took place until the makers finalized Ehan and Edilsy as the lead actors.

Production of the film silently progressed in March 2017 and ended within a year. The cinematography for the film was jointly handled by Tanay Satam and James Cowley, while editing was done by Akshay Mehta and Shreyas Beltangdy. The dialogues for the film were written by Hussain Dalal while Gautham Vasudev Menon and Kiran gave the dialogues for the Tamil and Telugu versions. For the Tamil version, G. V. Prakash Kumar and Khatija Rahman gave voice-overs for the film's lead actors.

The world premiere of *99 Songs* was held at the 24th Busan International Film Festival which was held at Busan, South Korea, where the film was screened in the Open Cinema category on 9 October 2019. The film was released on 16 April 2021, and was also dubbed and released in Tamil and Telugu.

## Cast

* Ehan Bhat as Jay
* Edilsy Vargas as Sophia Singhania / Sophie, Jay's love-interest
* Tenzin Dalha as Polo Longjam, Jay's friend
* Lisa Ray as Sheila
* Manisha Koirala as Psychologist
* Warina Hussain as the late mother of Jay (guest appearance)
* Thomson Andrews
* Ranjit Barot as Sanjay Singhania (Sanju), Sophie's father
* Rahul Ram as Music Teacher
* Diwakar Pundir as the late father of Jay (guest appearance)
* Remo Fernandes
* Ashwath Bhatt as CM Ashwath Prabhakar
* Kurush Deboo as Musical Instrument Store Owner - Furtados
* Neel Tyagi as Young Jay
* Chaitnya Sharma as Ricky Punjabi
* Kunal Kamra

## Notes

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## References

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1. ↑ [TBA 99 Songs (2021)].
2. ↑ Joshi, Priya (28 July 2015). [TBA AR Rahman interview: The Mozart of Madras].
3. ↑ [TBA 99 songs: AR Rahman's musical drama to be screened at Busan International Film Festival on 9 October- Entertainment News] (26 September 2019).
4. ↑ [TBA AR Rahman's maiden production venture '99 Songs' to premiere at Busan film festival] (26 September 2019).
5. ↑ [TBA A.R. Rahman's musical romance 99 Songs to release on April 16 in theatres] (11 March 2021).
6. ↑ Chatterjee, Suprateek (5 August 2015). [TBA AR Rahman Has Turned Scriptwriter For His Home Production '99 Songs'].
7. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>[TBA "Raazi actor Ashwath Bhatt: Kashmiris are doing well in the industry; genes help – Mumbai Mirror -"] Check `|url=` value (help). *Mumbai Mirror*. Retrieved 29 May 2018.

## External links

* Template:IMDb
* [TBA 99 Songs] on Bollywood Hungama