In Dhurandhar, Akshaye Khanna went viral for his impromptu dance in his Sher-e-Baloch anthem. His groovy Sher-e-Baloch entry to the Bahraini song, FA9LA by Flipperachi, became a sensation. Now, with Akshaye`s character dead in the second part, Ranveer gets his own song in Dhurandhar: The Revenge. Hamza (Ranveer) climbs the power ladder and wins the trust of the Baloch community. In a scene, he enters the camp, where he is welcomed with a high-energy performance, much like FA9LA but a different track.
About Didi by Khaled, Ranveer Singh`s Sher-e-Baloch entry song
The name of Ranveer Singh’s Sher-e-Baloch entry song is Didi, and it is by Algerian singer and musician Khaled. The song was originally released in 1992, and was one of the charbusters. Since then, the song has been remade, recreated and adapted multiple times in various languages, including Hindi, way before Dhurandhar 2.
Also called Cheb Khaled, the singer talks about a deep connection between two individuals in the Arabic raï song. A part of the song translates to, I`m burning in the fire of love, but you`re not. I will not make you away from me so I don`t cry later (always be close). But I just have a bad luck and destiny. Take take (Didi Didi), Take take the beautiful girl away. Take take, take take the beautiful girl away.” The term `didi` in Arabic means ‘take’.
Back in the day, Didi had topped charts in France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia when it released. It was also one of the opening songs for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Earlier mid-day had reported that Ranveer Singh would have his own song like FA9LA in Dhuranadhar 2. Interestingly, the song was filmed just a day before Khanna’s FA9LA was filmed in Ladakh. A source had told us, “After Akshaye’s character Rehman Dakait is killed in Dhurandhar, the Sher-e-Baloch title is given to Ranveer’s Hamza in the sequel. The song is a celebration of his ascension. Aditya shot Ranveer’s number on the same set in Ladakh. He decided to shoot the two songs back-to-back as the set was already standing, and given the challenging climatic conditions, it didn’t make sense to return to Ladakh later only for a song.”
Other versions of Didi
One of the early versions of the song was created by Moroccan-Belgian singer Brahim, who added English-language lyrics in 2005. Later in 2007, German duo Milk & Honey released an all-English language version with completely new lyrics and arrangement.
Later, the song was covered in multiple languages, including Greek, Spanish, Russian, Albanian, Turkish, Persian, Urdu, Serbian, and German, to name a few.
India, too, has used the song multiple times in cinema. Versions of the song became popular in India through plagiarised versions, one of which was the popular version, the Hindi song Ladki Ladki featured in the Bollywood movie Shreemaan Aashique (1993).
This song was also loosely sampled in the song Suno Suno Meri Rani Ji by Bappi Lahiri and Kavita Krishnamurthy from the 1994 film Brahma. Didi was almost completely featured in the 1995 Malayalam movie, Highway, with actress Silk Smitha. It also included a brief part which shows the original song video by Khalid being played on a television set.
Most recently, the 2016 Bollywood movie Airlift recreated this song in Hindi as Dil Cheez Tujhe De Di sung by Arijit Singh and Ankit Tiwari, starring Akshay Kumar. In 2020, the Malayalam movie Dhamaka also covered this song as Potti Potti directed by Gopi Sundar.
