Delhi Belly

Awards

Album Awards:
• 2011 - Mirchi Music Awards - Best Background Score - Ram Sampath

Trivia

Album

• Two versions of this film were released - one in which the dialogues were predominantly in English with the rest in Hindi, and another in which all the dialogues were in Hindi. Producer Aamir Khan described the former as the "Hinglish" version of the film, seventy percent of which was in English and the rest in Hindi. While the "Hinglish" version had risque language and used a lot of profanities, the Hindi version was milder. Aamir Khan had clarified that it was decided to release a Hindi version of the film in order to make it accessible to a wider audience. The film was remade in Tamil as "Settai" (2013) starring Arya and Santhanam.[1]
• The initial music release of this film was done by T-Series. A few years later, the album was re-released by Sony Music under license from UTV.
• Hyundai considered suing the makers of this film for a derogatory reference to a car that looked like a Santro. The car was described by a character in the film as what you get when "a donkey f**ks an auto rickshaw".[2]
• Producer Aamir Khan appeared in a cameo role in the film's climax.
• This was writer Akshat Verma's debut Hindi film. He wrote the first draft of the film's script in 1996 in a workshop at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was doing a Masters in screenwriting. In the workshop, he met Jim Furgele, who really liked the script, which was then titled "Say Cheese". The two went their separate ways after the workshop. Akshat took up various jobs after UCLA but his career was going nowhere. During this time he continued to develop "Say Cheese". In 2005, Furgele contacted him and offered to help him produce his script. They set up a company called Ferocious Attack Cow Productions and travelled to India to find producers for the script. Unfortunately for them, many Hindi film producers liked the script but weren't willing to finance it as they found it to be too "bold". After Akshat and Jim returned to the US, the script found its way to Aamir Khan's office, where Kiran Rao picked it out of a heap of scripts. She loved the script and encouraged Aamir to produce it despite his initial apprehensions about it. Ferocious Attack Cow Productions became a co-producer in the film, which went on to become a big hit.[3][4]
• This film was three years in the making and went through several changes in its cast and crew. Ranbir Kapoor and Chitrangada Singh were the first choices for its lead roles. However, Chitrangada quit the film over creative differences and Ranbir opted out due to schedule conflicts. The film was launched with Swedish director Robert Nylund at the helm and Shankar - Ehsaan - Loy as the music directors. Ajinkya Deo was brought in when Nylund left the film due to creative differences with Aamir Khan. Ajinkya, who had worked as an ad filmmaker previously, recommended Ram Sampath, an old associate of his, to be brought on board to compose the film's music. The film went on to become a breakthrough for Ram Sampath whose Hindi film career had languished after a promising start in "Khakee" (2004).[5][6][7][8][9]
• Actress Shenaz Treasury had auditioned for another film Aamir Khan was producing at the time, "Dhobi Ghat" (2011), but ended up being selected for this film instead.[10][11]
• This was the first film signed by director Abhinay Deo. However, since it was a long time in the making, "Game" (2011) came out first and became his debut film.[12]

Song

• Bhaag DK Bose Aandhi Aayi - This song was a big hit, particularly among the youth, because of its lyrics that were a play on a Hindi curse word. Its popularity caused outrage among some sections of the society forcing the Information & Broadcasting (I&B) ministry to ask the Censor Board to justify their decision of clearing the song without cuts. The Censor Board had clarified their position and stuck to their decision. Another minor controversy erupted when Aamir Khan received a legal notice from the artist duo Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra, who claimed copyright over the phrase "BoseDK". While the Delhi High Court refused to entertain their petition, Aamir met the artists and settled the issue with them amicably. He even addressed a press conference with Thukral and Tagra in which he gave the duo credit for their copyrighted phrase.[13][14]
• Bhaag DK Bose Aandhi Aayi - It was a matter of chance that Ram Sampath debuted as a singer in this film. He had recorded the scratch track for this song and had plans of using someone else for it eventually. However, when producer Kiran Rao heard his track, she wanted him to sing the final version. Sampath recorded the song after taking on board Aamir Khan's suggestion to make a few corrections to his diction.[15]
• Bhaag DK Bose Aandhi Aayi - In an interview, Amitabh Bhattacharya cited the usage of "keval jhaag" in this song as an example of his attempts to use words that appeared to be dropping out of popular use. The use of "baasi" and "jeevit" in "The Breakup Song" ("Ae Dil Hai Mushkil", 2016) was another such instance. Bhattacharya said that he was inspired to do this by what Gulzar had said in an interview - that he had used "chimta" and "charkha" in "Chappa Chappa Charkha Chale" ("Maachis", 1996) in order to preserve words that seemed to be falling out of favour.[16][17][18]
• Saigal Blues - Ram Sampath had composed the tune of this song years before this film came his way. Voice artist Chetan Shashital sang this song in the style of the acclaimed Hindi film singer of the 1940s, K.L. Saigal. Shashital also co-wrote the song's lyrics with Ram Sampath.[19]
• Jaa Chudail - This was the only song that was planned for the film initially. However, the film was in production for a long time and music director Ram Sampath composed a few more songs during this period. When the film was at the post-production stage, Sampath played these songs for producer Aamir Khan, who was very impressed and decided to include them in the film.[20]

1. ^ Aamir tones down Delhi Belly's Hindi version
2. ^ Hyundai and Delhi Belly
3. ^ Akshat Verma: He knows how to produce (Delhi) belly laughs
4. ^ 'No one wanted to finance Delhi Belly'
5. ^ Chitrangada Singh walks out of Aamir's Delhi Belly
6. ^ Ranbir out of Delhi Belly
7. ^ Swedish director Robert Nylund withdraws from Aamir's Delhi Belly
8. ^ Ram: After the Krazzy-4 incident, we did go through a lull period
9. ^ Khakee (2004)
10. ^ Dhobi Ghat (2011)
11. ^ Shenaz: I didn't even know which role I was auditioning for
12. ^ Game (2011)
13. ^ Censor Board in trouble over DK Bose
14. ^ Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra are the originals, I'm fake: Aamir Khan
15. ^ Ram: Aamir and Kiran insisted me on singing Bhag DK Bose
16. ^ Amitabh Bhattacharya: The everyman lyricist
17. ^ The Breakup Song (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, 2016)
18. ^ Chappa Chappa Charkha Chale (Maachis, 1996)
19. ^ Ram: After the Krazzy-4 incident, we did go through a lull period
20. ^ Delhi Belly’s Music Melee