The fans of India’s Test captain, Virat Kohli, are about to witness him in a new avatar. Kohli, who is the brand ambassador of the Premiere Futsal League will lend his voice to the anthem of the tournament titled ‘Naam hai Futsal’ and will sing to the tunes of none other than AR Rahman.
Both the music maestro and the Indian batsman were equally excited about working together. The iconic composer said, “I’m especially excited to work with Virat Kohli on this, let’s hope he is as good with his melody as he is with his bat!”
The 27-year-old was also extremely thrilled and said, “Sitting next to Rahman sir... it’s like all my childhood memories, growing up listening to his songs, are coming back to me! He’s been such a massive inspiration to my life and career.
“Apart from the national anthem that’s sung before every match, the only other song that resonates with the players is his version of Vande Mataram which is played during the end. Man, it gives me goosebumps every time! The whole stadium is roused, and we are infused with a new sense of energy. So you can imagine my excitement being here.”
He was particularly impressed by the musician’s humbleness and further added, “Just meeting him for a few minutes now has taught me about his success: the higher you go; the more humble you have to be. That’s my takeaway from this meeting.”
He later tweeted about his experience and time spent with the Oscar-winning composer:
The Royal Challengers Bangalore captain looked considerably tensed about singing and grinned, “Since I’m going to be singing only rap bits and nothing too complex, there shouldn’t be too many issues, I hope. But I still prefer the bat to the microphone!”
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On the other hand, AR Rahman was all smiles and confident that the Indian Test captain won't have any problems in signing and further talked about the anthem, “Hopefully, I’ll make it easy for Virat! Apart from him, other known faces like Karthik and Lady Kash are also part of the music video. I’ve been associated with a lot of sport-based films and initiatives in the recent past, and this project is further evidence that composing needn’t be restricted to only movies.
"The lyrics for this song are in English, and we’ve been working on it for a week now - not sure how it’ll turn out yet! The track isn’t all rap though; it’ll have a mixture of other elements as well."
Futsal is a quicker and shorter version of football, which is usually played indoors. The matches played are five-a-side and the format is quite popular in South America and Europe.
The league will consist of eight franchises from Chennai, Goa, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Kochi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The bidding for the teams will take place in Mumbai on June 20 in the presence of Portuguese superstar Luis Figo and they will then compete against each other from 15-24 July.
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