Taal (film) - Soundtrack

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was composed by A. R. Rahman with lyrics penned by Anand Bakshi. Taal marked the beginning of a famed collaboration between A. R. Rahman and Subhash Ghai. They had earlier joined hands to work on a film titled Shikhar which was later shelved. The song "Ishq Bina" was initially composed for Shikhar.

The soundtrack was a released on June 12, 1999 become big critical and commercial success. Its audio rights was bought by TIPS for a then record sum of 5 crores. At a press conference, Ghai remarked, "I credit the name of the movie to composer A. R. Rahman. This movie is a romance and I could have called it any thing - Dil, Pyaar, Hum Bhaag Gaye, but it was A. R. Rahman's presence in the movie that gave me the confidence to call it Taal. Taal means music and music means Taal. The whole credit goes to A. R. Rahman and Anand Bakshi. Rahman kept me awake many nights, but after listening to the songs, I felt it was worth all the trouble."

The soundtrack became a tremendous success, and was sold more than 18.5 lakh units within a month of its release. The soundtrack made the list of "Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks of All Time", as compiled by Planet Bollywood. Rahman made a clean sweep of all the music awards that year except the National Film Award for Best Music Direction which went to Ismail Darbar for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.