Ilahi is an Indian travel song from the 2013 Hindi film, ''

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani ''Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani'' (), also abbreviated as ''YJHD'', is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age romantic comedy film directed by Ayan Mukerji, written by Mukerji and Hussain Dalal, and produced by Karan Johar under Dharma Produc ...

''. The track is composed by

Pritam Chakraborty Pritam Chakraborty (born 14 June 1971), also popularly known mononymously as Pritam, is a National Award winning Indian composer, instrumentalist, music producer and singer. Graduating from FTII in Sound Engineering, he worked as an ad jin ...

, with lyrics by

Amitabh Bhattacharya Amitabh Bhattacharya (born 16 November 1976) is an Indian Bengali lyricist and playback singer who works in Bollywood films. At the beginning of his career back in 2000's, he was working for few musicians as a singer & met Pritam, who gave him ...

. Sung by

Arijit Singh Arijit Singh (; born 25 April 1987) is an Indian playback singer. A leading figure in contemporary Hindi film music, he is the recipient of several accolades including two National Film Awards and seven Filmfare Awards. He was conferred the P ...

, the music video of the track features actor

Ranbir Kapoor Ranbir Kapoor (; born 28 September 1982) is an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi-language films. He is one of the highest-paid actors of Hindi cinema and has featured in ''Forbes India'' Celebrity 100 list since 2012. Kapoor is the re ...

. A reprise version of the same song was released as part of the film soundtrack, which was rendered by

Mohit Chauhan Mohit Chauhan (born 11 March 1966) is an Indian playback singer, known for his work in Hindi films. He was a part of the Silk Route (band), Silk Route band. Chauhan has received two Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer and three Zee Ci ...

Background

The music for the song is composed by

Pritam Pritam Chakraborty (born 14 June 1971), also popularly known mononymously as Pritam, is a National Award winning Indian composer, instrumentalist, music producer and singer. Graduating from FTII in Sound Engineering, he worked as an ad jin ...

, marking his first venture as a composer in a

Dharma Productions Dharma Productions Pvt. Ltd. is an Indian film production and distribution company established by Yash Johar in 1979. It was taken over in 2004, after his death, by his son, Karan Johar. Based in Mumbai, it mainly produces and distributes H ...

. Pritam and

had earlier collaborated in films like ''

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani ''Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani'' () is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy and written and directed by Rajkumar Santoshi and produced by Ramesh Taurani under Tips Industries. Starring Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif, the film was a ...

'' (2009), ''

Raajneeti ''Raajneeti'' () is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language political thriller film co-written, directed and produced by Prakash Jha, with a screenplay by Anjum Rajabali and Prakash Jha. Depicting an archetypal conflict between rival political families a ...

'' (2010) and ''

Barfi! ''Barfi!'' is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language period romantic comedy film written and directed by Anurag Basu, edited by Akiv Ali and backed by UTV Motion Pictures. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Ileana D'Cruz (in her Hi ...

'' (2012). On 31 July 2012, reports suggested that

will be lending his voice for a song that features Kapoor, whom he had previously dubbed in '' Rockstar'' (2011) and ''

'' (2012). The original version which is sung by

is composed with heightened tempo and the musical arrangements are slightly different within the two versions. Apart from the song "Ilahi", Singh recorded two other tracks for the album of the film, " Dilliwaali Girlfriend" along with

Sunidhi Chauhan Sunidhi Chauhan (pronounced ; born Nidhi Chauhan, 14 August 1983) is an Indian playback singer. Known for her Bold vocal range, she has recorded songs for films in several Indian languages and List of awards and nominations received by Sunidhi ...

and Kabira alongside

Harshdeep Kaur Harshdeep Kaur (born 16 December 1986) is an Indian playback singer known for her Bollywood Hindi, Punjabi, English and Sufi songs. She is popularly known as "Sufi Ki Sultana" because of her soulful Sufi renditions. After winning titles in two ...

. In the film, Kapoor portrayed a character named Bunny, whose dream is to wander and explore the world. The song is picturised as how Bunny works as a videographer for a travel show and travels the world, as he had planned. Kapoor had earlier worked with

Ayan Mukerji Ayan Mukerji (born 15 August 1983) is an Indian filmmaker who works in Hindi films. A member of the Mukherjee-Samarth family, he is known for his collaborations with actor Ranbir Kapoor under Karan Johar's production banner Dharma Productions. ...

in 2009 Bollywood film, ''

Wake Up Sid ''Wake Up Sid'' is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language Coming-of-age story, coming-of-age Comedy drama, comedy-drama film written and directed by Ayan Mukerji in his directorial debut, and produced by Karan Johar under the Dharma Productions banner. T ...

''. The lyrics of the song which is penned by

mainly focuses on the unconstrained and carefree attitude of the protagonist who is filled with life.

Release and response

The song was released digitally as a part of the soundtrack of film on 29 April 2013. Stills of the song which features Kapoor with a beard, was revealed on 5 May 2013, along with the music video of the song Kabira. The music video of the song was officially released on 6 June 2013, through the YouTube channel of

T-Series T series or T-Series may refer to: Technology * Apple T series, a family of processors * Canon T series, a line of single lens reflex cameras * Juniper T series, a core router * Sony Ericsson T series, a series of cell phones * SPARC T series, ...

. The official music video of the song has over 300 Millions views as of March 2025.

Critical reception

Mohit Chauhan at the 59th Idea Filmfare Awards

Bollywood Hungama Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is an Indian entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000. The website provides n ...

''s Rajiv Vijayakar calling the song "a phonetic delight" thought it is a song that is "clearly meant to rivet the listener only with its hooks and catchy riffs". Reviewers from ''

IBNLive Network18 Media & Investments Limited, (d/b/a Network18 Group) is an Indian media conglomerate owned by the Reliance Industries, headed by Mukesh Ambani. Rahul Joshi is the managing director, chief executive officer and group editor-in-chief, a ...

'' wrote: "A simple song, sung by

. It has chorus by children singing in background brings freshness to it". Sankhayan Ghosh of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' praised the vocals by Singh as "confident". Writing for ''Koimoi'', Mohar Basu appraised the vocals by Chauhan and picked the version over original. He wrote: "The song is a perfect synthesis of correct energy quotient, with right amount of voice balance. As always

is a show stellar and this song repackages all his best qualities in a fine concoction". Reviewers from

wrote: "It's faster than the original, otherwise the rest of the elements are similar to the original". ''Bollywood Hungama''s Rajiv Vijayakar found the version a "bit toned down but much more feelingly sung" than the original.

References

{{Authority control 2013 songs Arijit Singh songs Songs in Hindi Songs with lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya Songs with music by Pritam Chakraborty Songs written for Hindi-language films