20th RMIM Puraskaar
This edition marks 20 years of RMIM Puraskaar. A lot has happened both in the world in general and the Hindi music industry in particular since then. When the Puraskaars began, the music scene was in a transitional phase, both materially and qualitatively. The new guards of Hindi film music were taking over from the old guard. The amount of talent that joined around that time - in all aspects of music creation - was remarkable.
In the early 2000s, the distribution of music was shifting from physical media (cassettes and CDs) to digital media (MP3s, etc.). It feels like a mere media shift but it had profound implications. It was inconceivable at the time that within a few years one could carry almost every song ever made in their pocket - without owning a single one. This has fundamentally changed how we appreciate music.
The creation of music has also been influenced by technical and stylistic shifts. Lip-syncing in film songs is all but gone, which has changed the tonality of songs. Many songs are now supposed to work well playing in the background, merely providing context instead of demanding attention. The "reel-ification" of music has dictated composition in terms of how short and instantly catchy songs need to be. On the material side, the democratization of audio tools has changed how (and where!) songs are produced.
Then there is discovery of new music. The serendipitous discovery of a song from radio, album-based listening, or a music store, is a thing of the past. We have gladly transferred that responsibility to algorithms that reinforce our tastes and biases. Increasingly, the recommendations engines that tell us what to listen to are not even algorithmic but black-boxed AI models. Our listening tastes are dictated and reinforced almost fully by unknowable machines than by fellow curators and friends.
Amidst all these far-reaching changes, so far, the film music has survived, and even thrived. We have had a steady stream of talent and creativity. And despite all the naysayers, the essence of Hindi music, which is rooted in its melodic content, remains intact. At the same time, all bets are off if generative AI models start creating our music. The road from deciding our taste to fulfilling that taste is straight, not long, and squarely in the AI wheelhouse.
Film Music This Year
If 2025 had a sound, it was the sound of looking back. From the tonga beats of the 50s (ajeeb-o-gareeb) to the symphonic nostalgia of the 90s (paradesiyaa, bas ek dha.Dak), composers seemed eager to escape the present. Qawwalis also seemed to crop up, especially some that were unlike traditional ones (qubool, nee.nd bhii terii).
Pritam bagged our MD of the Year title solely due to - what would have been called a "double-album" in the old days - Metro In Dino. ARR fared well and was close behind with Tere Ishk Mein. Amit Trivedi had several appreciated songs spread across multiple films, and takes the top spot on the Best Composed and Arranged Songs list. Sachin-Jigar had a spate of films in our list too, and their paradesiyaa was rated highly by our jurors, eventually being named Song of the Year. Justin Prabhakaran with his unorthodox compositions in Aap Jaisa Koi was also appreciated. Among newer entrants, Vishal Mishra made inroads into composing songs, and Shashwat Sachdeva dared to rework a Roshan-Sahir classic into a modern number (and almost pulled it off - none of our jurors died).
We only have one 15+ album this year and that is Metro In Dino, which gets our RMIM Sammaan and enters in our virtual hall of all-time excellence.
Irshad returns as our Lyricist of the Year, but Amitabh Bhattacharya was not far behind. Both dominated the scene, with the latter bagging the top spots in Best Written Songs for both Film and Non-film categories. Gulzar was widely loved for Gustaakh Ishq. A varied lineup of lyricists including Geet Sagar, Gurprit Saini, Rashmi Virag, Shashwat Dwivedi, and Dr. Sagar wrote the rest of our best-appreciated lyrics.
The 20-year-old Armaan Khan shared our New Artist of the Year award with Faheem Abdullah, whose saiyaaraa became an anthem this year. Armaan also gets the top spot in Best Sung Songs (Solo) with his singing in qubool. Shreya Ghoshal was strikingly absent this year from our first page. Shilpa Rao impressed the jury with her slow, haunting tere zikra me.n. The Female Singer of the Year award, however, went to Madhubanti Bagchi for her performances that were appreciated by both the jury and the audience.
Let's get to the elephant in the room - Arijit Singh. His announcement last week to retire from playback singing took everyone by surprise. It is an unprecedented occurrence in Hindi playback history. There will be a time, perhaps 20 or 30 years from now, when serious people would talk about this moment as a separator of musical eras. His impact on the last 14 years of Hindi film music is so phenomenal and complete that the period "after Arijit Singh" is bound to be different. He dominated the year before he retired, winning - handily - Male Singer of the Year award for a record 13th time. Only Shreya has won as many. Starting in 2012, he has won this title every single year except in 2013. (By the way, he announced his retirement after our jury had made their decisions and wrote their comments, so cut them some slack for not mentioning it.)
Non-Film Music
Salim-Sulaiman have been running their "Bhoomi" project since 2022, bringing together various singers for an annual album. Four songs from this year's edition, Bhoomi 2025, found a place in our top list. Three hit our top 10, including one at the very top. shRRi.ngaar (sung by Shankar Mahadevan) is our Non-Film Song of the Year (Series/Album). Prajakta Shukre's semi-classical fusion piece bairii chhaliyaa takes our second spot, followed by Arijit's sukoon. All three are from projects or albums; we didn't have any songs worth awarding from web/TV series this year.
Among independent songs, our jury loved adhoora by Shilpa Rao. It took the Non-Film Song of the Year (Independent) award. Shekhar Ravjiani's baavajuud and Sana Moidutti's ghazal dard dil ke were also well-appreciated.
Non-film pop songs have suffered from mediocre lyric writing for as long as they have existed. It has been an overlooked aspect of the genre, and unfortunately, this continues. The hope is that the democratization of production changes that. It's tough to win the top spot for Best Written Songs if you're competing with Amitabh Bhattacharya - he does it this year for baavajuud - but few seem to be trying. The overall pool remains shallow. The song kaisii ye aa.Ndhii thii by Mansa Jimmy also makes the Best Written Songs list.
The silver lining to Arijit's retirement from playback sining is that he will likely have more time for non-film work. Given his history, that will hopefully enrich the space. All the best to him.
Shukriyaa!
Thanks so much to all jury members for their time, mind, heart, and words, which sometimes they provided despite pressing personal situations. Your generosity is what makes this all possible. It is why RMIM Puraskaar has outgrown its teens.
Thanks to everyone else. Check out the awards. Enjoy the songs!
Keep listening...
Vinay