Dabangg () is the soundtrack to the 2010 film of the same name. Directed by Abhinav Singh Kashyap (in his directorial debut), the film is produced by Arbaaz Khan (in his debut as a film producer) and Malaika Arora Khan under Arbaaz Khan Productions, with Dhilin Mehta serving as the co-producer and distributor of the film under Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision banner. Khan's elder brother Salman Khan starred in the lead role.
The soundtrack album featured five original songs, four remix versions, an alternate version of the track and a theme song, totalling up to 10 tracks in the album. The item number "Munni Badnaam Hui" is written and composed by Lalit Pandit, while the music director duo Sajid–Wajid (Khan's norm collaborator) composed the remainder of it, and Faiz Anwar and Jalees Sherwani writing lyrics for those tracks. The background score is composed by Sandeep Shirodkar. The film's music album was launched on 20 August 2010 through digital formats, even before few of the tracks were aired in radio stations. The same day, a physical launch was conducted in Delhi, with the presence of the cast and crew. T-Series, which purchased the marketing rights of the film's music album for , released the physical copies of the album into the stores.
The album opened to positive response from critics and audiences. Commercially, the tracks set records in sales of physical CDs and through digital downloads; songs including "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain" and "Munni Badnaam Hui" opened exceptionally from listeners and became chartbusters, topping the music, radio and streaming charts. Singer Mamta Sharma who crooned the latter, gained immense popularity after the track's success. In addition, the album won three awards each at Filmfare (including one for Best Music Director), Zee Cine, Producers Guild, Lions Gold, BIG STAR IMA, two BIG Star Entertainment, five IIFA and seven awards each at Mirchi Music at GiMA Awards.
Sajid–Wajid renewed his association as composer in Dabangg 2 (2012) and Dabangg 3 (2019), the future instalments of the Dabangg franchise. The track "Munni Badnaam Hui" was recreated as "Munna Badnam Hua" for the latter, and the titular track "Hud Hud Dabangg" was re-created twice as "Dabangg Reloaded" in the former, and "Hud Hud" (the same name as the original) in the latter. However, music enthusiasts gave mixed opinions for the soundtrack albums of both the films, due to its quality being deteriorated due to their comparisons with that of the original.
Composition Like their previous films of Khan, the tracks in Dabangg were composed in mind with the on-screen and off-screen persona of the star, implying that it would resonate with the star's fanbase. In an interview with Devansh Patel of Bollywood Hungama, the duo stated that "Dabangg is a very rural subject in terms of its music. We were confident that we would do something as wacky as the script." About composing the track "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain", Wajid had stated that "This song was already made when the film came to us. Before I could finish singing one line to Salman bhai, he said, kamaal track hai (great song), this is a super hit song!' He takes such an active interest that the music making process becomes far more enjoyable. It also makes things easy because if he likes the song, it is finalised for the film." The duo worked on the programming and arrangements of the film's background score, while Sandeep Shirodkar worked on the composition.
The title track "Hud Hud Dabangg" was composed even before the duo heard the full script and had composed in front of the producers and director, which they appreciated. Wajid said that "the song was made on just a mere character sketch of Salman, but was improved with Kashyap's vision". The track "Munni Badnaam Hui" is said to be inspired by an old Bhojpuri folk song "Launda Badnaam Hua Naseeban Tere Liye". Director Abhinav Kashyap accepted using the folk song saying that he, being from Uttar Pradesh, was familiar with the song since childhood so he suggested the very song to be improvised and rephrased to fit the film's requirement. It has been stated that particular composition and lyrics (i.e. the rephrasing) were copied from the Pakistani song "Ladka Badnaam Hua" from the film Mr. Charlie (1992) performed by Umer Shareef.
Critical reception Dabanggs soundtrack received generally positive reviews from music critics. Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave the album 3 stars and said, "[it] delivers what it promised. One expected a masala soundtrack and this is what one gets with a couple of item song sequences, a couple of theme tracks and two love songs which are actually the highlight of the film. A soundtrack that has something in store for mass as well as class." Atta Khan of Planet Bollywood gave it a rating of 6 out of 10, and called the soundtrack "simple, catchy, easy on the ears and fun" and further wrote "Dabangg further showcases their ability to connect with the mass audience. In other words it delivers thanks to their knowledge of 'what is required' and their ability to attract strong singers such as Sonu Nigam, Sukhwinder Singh and Shreya Ghoshal."
In a 3-star rating, critic Devesh Sharma of Filmfare praised Sajid–Wajid's composition, saying "the soundtrack scores high on energy quotient". He picked the track "Chori Kiya Re Jiya" as the best from the album, calling it "[pleasure] to the ears". Ruchika Kher of Hindustan Times gave 3 stars saying that the album "has mass appeal, entertaining and apt for the film". Giving 7.5 stars out of 10, Vipin Nair of Music Aloud called it as the "customary Salman Khan soundtrack", but added "Sajid-Wajid and Lalit Pandit manage to make it more enjoyable than the previous ones in that line". Milliblog's Karthik Srinivasan stated "Two listenable tracks is a lot for this soundtrack". Komal Nahta called the film's music as "one of the highlights" and said "Every song is a wonderfully composed number so that the three music directors emerge as three additional heroes of the film".
Charts and sales The album performed well on the charts after its release. The tracks "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain" and "Munni Badnaam" were successful, and entered the list of top 20 most frequently played songs on radio in India. In August 2010, the track "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain" reached number-one on the Official Asian Download Chart in the United Kingdom based on legal downloads in that country. The audio CDs of Dabangg's soundtrack priced at , reportedly shown a varied interest among the audience with a record of 5 lakh CDs were sold before the film's release. Dabangg, as well as the physical soundtrack of 3 Idiots (2009) set records in music CD sales, before the decline of CDs and physical formats, which attributed due to the advent of digital downloads and music streaming platforms. Additionally, the audio of Dabangg saw more than million digital downloads.
Awards and nominations AwardDate of ceremonyCategoryRecipientsResultBIG Star Entertainment Awards21 December 2010Most Entertaining Song"Munni Badnaam Hui" rowspan="2"Most Entertaining Singer – Male for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"Most Entertaining Singer – Female for "Munni Badnaam Hui" rowspan="2"Most Entertaining MusicScreen Awards6 January 2011Best Music Director rowspan="4"Best Female Playback Singer for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best Choreography for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best New Talent In Music for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Zee Cine Awards14 January 2011Best Music DirectorSajid–Wajid rowspan="3"Best Background MusicSandeep ShirodkarSa Re Ga Ma Pa – Song of the Year"Munni Badnaam Hui"Best LyricistFaiz Anwar for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain" rowspan="4"Best Female Playback SingerShreya Ghoshal for "Chori Kiya Re JiyaMamta Sharma for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best Male Playback SingerRahat Fateh Ali Khan for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"Filmfare Awards29 January 2011Best Music DirectorSajid–Wajid rowspan="3"Lalit Pandit for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best Female Playback SingerMamta Sharma for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best LyricistFaiz Anwar for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"Apsara Film & Television Producers Guild Awards12 January 2011Best Male Playback SingerRahat Fateh Ali Khan for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain" rowspan="3"Best Female Playback SingerMamta Sharma for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best Music DirectorSajid–WajidBest LyricistFaiz Anwar for "Tere Mast Mat Do Nain" rowspan="2"Best ChoreographyFarah Khan for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Stardust Awards6 February 2011New Musical Sensation – FemaleMamta Sharma for "Munni Badnaam Hui"International Indian Film Academy Awards23–25 June 2011Best Music DirectorSajid–Wajid and Lalit Pandit rowspan="5"Best Male Playback SingerRahat Fateh Ali Khan for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"Best Female Playback SingerMamta Sharma for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best ChoreographyFarah Khan for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best Sound Re-RecordingLeslie FernadesBest LyricistFaiz Anwar for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"Mirchi Music Awards27 January 2011Best Album of the YearDabangg rowspan="7"Best Male VocalistRahat Fateh Ali Khan for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"Best Female VocalistAishwarya Nigam and Mamta Sharma for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best Background ScoreSandeep ShirodkarBest Upcoming Singer of the Year – FemaleMamta Sharma for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best Music Director of the YearSajid–Wajid for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"Best Item Number"Munni Badnaam Hui"Best Song of the Year"Munni Badnaam Hui" rowspan="6""Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"Best Female Vocalist of the YearShreya Ghoshal for "Chori Kiya Ra Jiya"Best Music Director of the YearLalit Pandit for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best Lyricist of the YearFaiz Anwar for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"Best Song RecordingAbani Tanti for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Journalist National Awards22 November 2010Best Female Debut SingerMamta Sharma for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Kalakar Awards4 November 2010Best Female Debut SingerNDTV Poll1 January 2011Best Song of the Year"Munni Badnaam Hui"Global Indian Music Academy Awards30 October 2011Best Film AlbumDabangg rowspan="7"Best Music DirectorSajid–Wajid and Lalit PanditBest Music Debut - FemaleMamta Sharma for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best Engineer - Film AlbumEric PillaiBest Engineer - Theatre MixLeslie FernadesBest Background ScoreSandeep ShirodkarRed FM Most Popular Song on Radio"Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"Best Music Arranger and ProgrammerSandeep Shirodkar for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain" rowspan="6"Best LyricistFaiz Anwar for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"Best Female Playback SingerMamta Sharma for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best Male Playback SingerRahat Fateh Ali Khan for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"Best Song"Munni Badnaam Hui""Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"BIG STAR IMA Awards25 February 2011Best Music ComposerSajid–Wajid for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain" rowspan="3"Best Album of the YearDabanggBest Dance Song of the Year"Munni Badnaam Hui"Best Female Playback SingerMamta Sharma for "Munni Badnaam Hui" rowspan="3"Best Music ComposerLalit Pandit for "Munni Badnaam Hui"Best Background ScoreSandeep ShirodkarLions Gold Awards11 January 2011Favourite Sensational SingerMamta Sharma for "Munni Badnaam Hui" rowspan="3"Favourite Music DirectorSajid–WajidFavourite ChoreographerFarah Khan for "Munni Badnaam Hui"FICCI Frames Excellence Honours Awards26 March 2011Best Music DirectorSajid–WajidAaj Tak Awards3 January 2012Best Song"Munni Badnaam Hui"Rajiv Gandhi Achievers Awards15 December 2010Best Bollywood RemixRomeo and DJ Deepesh for "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain"
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