Baba Bandook: Haroon and Ali Azmat evoke 90s nostalgia

Pop icons Ali Azmat and Haroon team up to sing theme song for 'Burka Avengers'

KARACHI: Fans of Pakistan’s pop music of the 1990s are in for a treat as singers Haroon and Ali Azmat have teamed up for a song, titled Baba Bandook. The song is essentially the theme song for Baba Bandook, the villain from animated television show Burka Avenger.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Haroon commented on the collaboration and his camaraderie with Ali, stating, “Ali and I actually go back a long way and have been friends for a while now. Many people don’t know this, but we were even roommates and shared an apartment a long time ago.”

#THROWBACK: The former frontmen of the bands Junoon (Ali) and Awaz (Haroon) face off in the music video. PHOTO: PUBLICITY

The former Awaz singer said he had wanted to collaborate with Ali on a song for a longtime, and felt this was the right time to do it. “I was looking to collaborate with him on a song for a while and when we came up with Baba Bandook, I couldn’t think of anyone better than Ali, as he is the ‘bad guy’ of our rock-and-roll industry,’ he stated.

Haroon stated that Ali was immediately on board with the project when he approached him and “rode from Lahore to Islamabad to meet [him] at [his] office for the song.”

Ali shared, “We did the song almost two years ago when Haroon called me to participate in the song, which had been produced by Sarmad Ghafoor.”

The music video for the song, directed by Uzair Khan and Rizwan Ahmad, shows both musicians going up against each other, while being intercut with animations from the show.

Haroon described the shoot for the music video as a fun experience. Narrating an incident from the shoot, he said, “Ali started performing without any rehearsal and was giving expressions, which made me laugh so hard.”

Haroon and Ali hope the song would evoke “a feeling of nostalgia” in the fans after they see two musicians from the 1990s perform together and “appeal to their inner child” as well.