By Subhash K Jha

Mumbai, Apr 17 (IANS): The track "Main phir bhi tumko chahunga" from the forthcoming Chetan Bhagat adaptation "Half Girlfriend" has registered over 4 million views through unofficial version and remixes, even before the songs official release.

The song writer Manoj Muntashir whose earlier credits include the superhit "Galliyan" in "Ek Villain" and "Besabriyaan" in "Dhoni The Untold Story" is over the moon.

"It was a nazm which I wrote in 2001 when I was on a Kashmir tour. I wrote it sitting on the banks of Dal Lake. During that time I was not even a part of Bollywood. In 2014 after my song 'Galliyan' became a huge success, Ankit Tiwari heard me reciting this nazm at Hard Rock Cafe Andheri. He passed it on to Mohit Suri and he loved it and said he wants to use it in one of his films," said Muntashir.

Surprisingly Muntashir initially refused to let Suri use the poetry for a song.

"I told him, it's a nazm, which is not music-friendly. Specially the kind of music we have today doesn't allow this kind of awkward and lengthy metre. But Mohit (Suri) wouldn't listen. He made 'Hamari Adhuri Kahani' after 'Ek Villain' and didn't use it. So I though he must have forgotten about it. But while he was working on the music of 'Half Girlfriend' he called me back and insisted on having this nazm as the main song of his narrative," said the writer.

Once again Muntashir refused: "I was very skeptical considering the format of the poetry. But I guess Mohit had a vision about it which has been proved with more than 4 Million unofficial hits on youtube even before the song release.

"He worked for several days relentlessly with Mithoon to get it composed. I bow to down to the genius of Mithoon who composed it even without changing one word from the original. Mohit and I both had tears when we first heard the composition," he said.

The poet can't believe how much of an impact just two lines of the song have created.

"Merely two lines in the trailer have created a stir throughout the nation. I can only feel thankful to Neelam Muntashir, my wife for whom I wrote this nazm, Ankit Tiwari who was the first one to believe in it, Mohit Suri who didnt listen to any of my crap when I told him not to use nazm as a song, Arjit for Inducing life in it and Mithoon for achieving something I thought was impossible," said Muntashir.