Rashi Mal has turned a song that began as a film romance into a standalone meditation on self-acceptance. In a new interview, she explained that Baaton Mulaqaton Mein was originally written for Culture Vulture, a film directed by Sudhish Kamath in which she stars alongside Nagesh Kukunoor and Suchitra Pillai, with a cameo by Cameron Crowe.
When the film did not find a release, she took the song to audiences herself and changed its story. Instead of another boy-meets-girl romance, it became a conversation about body image and self-love.
A different kind of love song
“For the film, I wrote it as a romantic song,” she said, “but when I thought of releasing the song independently, I wanted to give it a very different spin.” That spin drew from her own experience in the entertainment industry, where comments about appearance are common.
She described focusing on microscopic flaws and seeing herself through a distorted lens early in her career. The video uses that experience as its emotional core.
What the visuals say
The choreography borrows from Bob Fosse’s style, especially the way he used hands and fingers. The design turns everyday objects into symbols:
- Magnifying glasses for harsh self-scrutiny.
- Mirrors and photo frames for the versions we present to the world.
- Gloved hands as the intrusive thoughts that touch self-image.
Rashi said the open-ended narrative was deliberate. “Art is and always has been subjective,” she said. “The purpose of art is never to impose a singular narrative.”
A team built around a vision
She credited director Kabeer Khurana, production designer Stuti Babbar, choreographer Rohit Bhatnagar and DOP Neha Parti Matiyani with bringing the concept to life. The video comes from her banner Wishing Wand Productions, which she says she named as a child while editing a birthday video for her father.
It marks another swing in a varied musical life, after the Bollywood-pop “Buri Buri” from Dear Maya and the lo-fi EP Rashionality Ch.1. She describes the new song as jazz.
What comes next
Rashi is looking ahead to a new musical chapter, a project called New Clear Rule, a live production and a film in development. For this video, though, her goal is simple: if it makes viewers feel something and find their own meaning, it has worked.
Source: Filmibeat