Response to 'Jabra Fan' song shows star power: Varun Grover

Pic Courtesy: Movie Still

Mumbai: In his five-year-old Bollywood career, Varun Grover has mostly penned lyrics for off-beat films, so, the widespread response to his latest song in superstar Shah Rukh Khan's "Fan" has overwhelmed him.

Grover had written the lyrics of last year's acclaimed films like "Masaan" and "Dum Laga Ke Haisha".

His song for the film "Fan", titled "Jabra Fan", was released by Shah Rukh recently. The song celebrates the feeling of a fan towards his idol.

Varun said the instant popularity of track made him realise the power of a star. "This is the first time a song of mine has got this big a release. For 'Masaan', we were waiting for the song to cross one lakh views on YouTube and it did after five-seven days. This one, within 24 hours, had crossed 15 lakh views. The reaction I've been getting is overwhelming. For the first time I felt the power of a star," he told PTI in an interview.

Grover is not new to unusual yet catchy words and phrases in songs like "Womaniya" for a number in "Gangs of Wasseypur" and "Dard Karara" phrase in last year's "Dum Laga Ke Haisha".

This time, to add freshness to the Shah Rukh-track, Varun coined the word "jabra" to go with the line - "fan ho gaya".

"What I am seeing today are songs with phrases like 'Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan' and 'Baby Doll'. These words are something new and not cliched. So to use a line like 'Sabse Bada Fan Hogaya' wouldn't have been fresh. We had to either coin a new word or use a lesser known word," he said.

"In Uttar Pradesh we say 'jabrat', in other parts of the state we say 'jabbar' and 'jabardast' in north India. So I coined the word 'jabra'."

Grover had other options too, but settled for the word "jabra" as the film's director, Maneesh Sharma, asked him to retain it.

"Another option we had was 'tagda fan ho gaya'. So we tried one line with 'jabra' and one with 'tagda'. But Maneesh didn't like it that much and he asked to retain only 'jabra' and we went ahead with it," he said. 

The song has been composed by Vishal-Shekhar. Grover wrote the song within three-four days, and it took the team just two weeks to finish the track. The lyricist revealed the initial draft was slightly different with names of popular Shah Rukh movies in lyrics.

"Initially I was writing it from the perspective of a Shah Rukh fan. So the initial draft had names of his popular movies in the lyrics, such as 'Baazigar', 'Karan Arjun', 'Ram Jaane'. Then Maneesh said he wanted a song which is not restricted to Shah Rukh fans, but cuts across to a wider audience."

"Not only a Shah Rukh fan, but any fan should be able to sing for his idol, be it another superstar, a cricketer, girlfriend or boyfriend. The song is about a person you can't live without," he added.

Grover said he had to give an insight into a fan's psyche and still make it sound ambitious.

"The brief was simple. It is not Shah Rukh singing. It is a fan singing. So I had to write in a way the fans will connect with, show their world. And yet, it had to be ambitious," he said. "Fan" releases on April 15.