Hit Bollywood song gets Arabic version

Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif

JEDDAH: Fans of Bollywood stars Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif have been offered a musical treat with the release of the Arabic version of a popular song in their latest movie “Tiger Zinda Hai.”
The movie — extensively filmed in Abu Dhabi — is scheduled for worldwide release on Dec. 22, but “Swag Se Swagat,” the first song of the spy thriller, is already a big hit on YouTube.
The song, featuring Khan and Kaif, has more than a million likes and 98 million views on the video-sharing site.
The theme of the song focuses on brotherhood and peace, with the Arabic version sung by Rabih Baroud and Brigitte Yaghi. The original is sung by Vishal Dadlani and Neha Bhasin.
“Tiger Zinda Hai” is a sequel to filmmaker Kabir Khan’s 2012 movie “Ek Tha Tiger.” The film, directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, explores the story of Indian spy Tiger and Pakistani spy Zoya as a team.
In the first film, Tiger and Zoya worked against each other, only to fall in love during a mission and later elope to escape the wrath of their respective governments.
But in the sequel, Tiger and Zoya are a team who have one mission: Peace. The film is a fictionalized retelling of a real-life incident in which 25 Indian nurses were kidnapped in Iraq in 2015.
Having an Arabic version of the song “is a way to connect with audiences in the Middle East, as Hindi films have huge appeal there and Salman Khan is the biggest superstar in the region,” the director said.