Exclusive! Here’s how Suryaveer Hooja and Shibani Kashayap collaborated for the recreation of ‘Ankhiya Udeek Diya’ and ‘Ve Main Chori Chori’

Suryaveer Hooja and Shibani Kashayap recently joined hands for recreating two of Punjabi sufi classic songs ‘Ankhiya Udeek Diya’ and ‘Ve Main Chori Chori’, and tugged at the heartstrings. Talking about the same in an exclusive interview with ETimes, Suryaveer and Shibani opened up on how the collaboration happened, why did they choose these two songs in particular and more.
Why did you choose Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s ‘Ankhiya Udeek Diya’ and Reshamaji’s’ ‘Ve Main Chori Chori’?
Suryaveer Hooja
It wasn't decided.It just came out from the heart, as while practicing the songs and jamming with Shibani Kashyap these two songs were fitting together and were suiting our voices.
You were recreating classic works of legends, wasn’t there the pressure of meeting the benchmark?
Suryaveer Hooja
It is always very difficult to recreate classics because people have huge expectations as they are used to listening to the song in a particular way, so there is pressure. But the audience loves it, so I love to do it. When I recreate songs I do a lot of research, and what I create, 95-96% of my audiences love it and that's what keeps me going.
Shibani Kashyap
I don't feel the pressure I feel that I'm giving my own interpretation to this old masterpiece of Sufi creation and I think it ain't pressure its pleasure. In fact, I have ascribed to this genre of music a lot, so we come up with something new of Sufi genre and modernized the Sufi element and have done it in our own way; the Shibani and Suryaveer way. So there was absolutely no pressure.
There would have been pressure if I had to recreate or replicate Lata Mangeshkar as shes a singer I would like to replicate, folk music is very free-flowing and experimental that we've tried, so no pressure only pleasure.
How did the collaboration happened?
Suryaveer Hooja
We've known each other for a long time and were thinking to sing a song together but eventually, while we were practicing together in Delhi it just clicked and this came up.
Shibani Kashyap
We had been planning to do a collaboration since a few years now but I guess both of us were busy traveling and performing all over the world, while we got this opportunity we we're like let's see where it goes. And while we were jamming at my place and I heard Suryaveer singing ‘Akhiyan Udeek Diya’ I instantly, very spontaneously sang a line of ‘Ve Main Chori Chori’ and that blended very well, so we decided to do a mashup. And no one has done mashups in sufi genre so we are very happy with the reactions and love that we are getting by the viewers.