When the trailer of Dhurandhar: The Revenge dropped on March 7, it wasn’t just Ranveer Singh who was the talk of the internet. Within minutes, social media was flooded with a single question: What is this song?
Meet the voice and mind behind Ari Ari – Bombay Rockers
The track featured in the trailer is a revamped version of the early 2000s pop hit by the Bombay Rockers – a band that needs no introduction to many millennials. For everyone else, there’s a story.
Bombay Rockers is a Danish-Indian live duo. Their debut album Introducing went five times platinum with sales of over 100,000 copies. That’s not small for an independent act spanning two continents.
It started, like many things, with an unlikely meeting. In 2003, Danish-Indian singer Navtej Singh Rehal, known as Naf, introduced himself to Danish production duo Thomas Sardorf and Janus Barnewitz from the Scandinavian production team WCA, leading to their initial collaboration in Denmark. The three of them started jamming and from these sessions came something that didn’t fit into any box.
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Their first collaboration, Ari Ari, received extensive nationwide airplay in Denmark and became a left-field DJ choice. It was a track rooted in Punjabi folk tradition but wrapped in Western pop and electronic production – the kind of sound that felt fresh because, simply put, no one else was doing it.
The Danish-Indian pop duo consists of Navtej Singh Rehal (vocals, guitar and keyboards) and Thomas Sardorf (vocals and keyboards). Together with Danish producer Janus Barnewitz, the group focused on creating a fusion between bhangra and western musical expressions such as R&B, pop and hip hop.
In July 2003, Bombay Rockers took the stage with homegrown duo Filur at the Roskilde Festival in front of around 25,000 people. A month later they played at the Images of Asia festival and performed many shows in Copenhagen and the rest of Denmark. They also performed with the famous English DJ project Panjabi MC in 2003.
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In 2005, the band broke up far beyond Scandinavia. The album quickly became a commercial hit in India, earning platinum certification and topping the Indian album charts for 15 consecutive weeks. Their debut was eventually released in more than 32 countries worldwide.
Their live performances were equally memorable. Bombay Rockers put on an electrifying live performance that included breakdancers, Indian folk and belly dancers. It was spectacle and substance in equal measure.
In 2016, Bombay Rockers contributed original music to the Bollywood action film Rocky Handsome, including the energetic track “Rock Tha Party”, performed with visuals featuring stars John Abraham and Nora Fatehi. This soundtrack marked their most notable output in nearly five years and reinvigorated their presence in the Indian film music scene.
Ari Ari himself has already been revived once. The song reappeared in the 2019 film Satellite Shankar starring Sooraj Pancholi. Even after years, the original feel of the track continued to attract listeners.
Now it’s back, bigger than ever. Music composer Shashwat Sachdev worked on the new version, while original singer Navtej Singh Rehal returned for vocals. The song also features the voices of Khan Saab, Jasmine Sandlas and Sudhir Yaduvanshi, with lyrics credited to Irshad Kamil along with Bombay Rockers.
Many people may not realize that “Ari Ari” originally has its roots in the traditional Punjabi folk tune Baari Barsi, which has been sung at festive gatherings for generations. The bones of the song are old. His energy, it seems, is timeless.
After the release of the trailer, the band’s official Instagram account posted, “Bombay Rockers’ iconic ‘Ari Ari’ returns in Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge. If you like it… share it. Full track out soon.”
The band currently has just over 1,400 followers on Instagram – a modest number that almost certainly won’t stay that way for long.
Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge will hit theaters on March 19, 2026.
