The OG hitmaker

Raghav, who shot to fame with 2004’s Angel eyes, shares the events that led to his song becoming the title track of Shahid-Kriti’s film

In the era when pop music enjoyed its time under the sun, Raghav Mathur’s Angel eyes (Teri baaton mein) (2004) became the easy hit that made its way to clubs, iPods, and song-streaming shows. The track from Storytellers—the album that brought the musician immense stardom—was in every way an evergreen number that underwent several official and unofficial iterations over the years. Soon after it went viral again during the lockdown-induced social media boom, Mathur found himself with an offer.

“[The makers of Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya] came to me two years ago with an idea to recreate it. I’ve been approached many times with similar offers, some of which came as veiled threats. This time, I agreed to go ahead. However, the original number, Angel eyes, was written over an old reggae song called Murder she wrote. Before my music career started, I was working in a CD store selling electronics in Calgary. My manager was working with some of the greatest Jamaican reggae producers of all time, and I had access to amazing producers. I believe this rhythm is probably the greatest dance hall rhythm of all time. I told my manager that I could write 100 songs over this rhythm because I just felt it. It’s a four-bar loop over which you can sing anything,” he recalls, further highlighting how his mother helped him pen the lyrics to Angel eyes, one of the “biggest hits of my career”.

While Mathur was willing to share the rights with the makers, the team had to also procure the required permissions from the makers of Murder she wrote. “They had to approve of the financial and creative terms because the music is synonymous with that record. We needed to have seven publishers on the same page, willing to allow iterations in the lyrics, and verses. I would give T-Series credit for being patient,” says Mathur, who asserted that the new version be rendered by him. He shares that while he was taken aback when he realised that the film had been named on the song, he “sorted it out pretty quickly”. 

Mathur acknowledges that unlike several hit records of the early 2000s, Angel eyes was synonymous with the artiste who created it. In this case, it was him. “Teri baaton was a cult classic for 20 years, if I may say so. But it was never benefited with a proper music video. I’m glad [it does have it now]. Many people said I should have been in the video, and I’m like, have you seen Shahid Kapoor?”

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