Dawn Images

After lending her vocals to Madras Cafe and Highway, Zebunissa Bangash has bagged her third Bollywood gig in Fitoor, the Katrina Kaif and Aditya Roy Kapur-starring adaptation of Great Expectations. Fitoor follows a childhood love story that develops into an obsession.

In the film, Zeb has sung two tracks, the first of which is a Persian song 'Haminastu'.

'Haminastu' literally translates to heaven on earth. The song's lyrics are derived from a saying of a Mughal emperor for Kashmir: "If there is a heaven on earth, it is here, it is here."

In an interview with NDTV, director Abhishek Kapoor said that Fitoor was shot in Kashmir because of the land's "surreal beauty", so we can expect the film to pay tribute to Kashmir in both sights and song.

In a chat with Images, Zeb revealed that Katrina's character is named Firdous, which also translates to heaven, so the song has a definite romantic element.

The lyrics of 'Haminastu' have been penned by Swanand Kirkire who has previously done lyrics for Shamitabh, PK and Bobby Jasoos, among other films. Fitoor's music has been composed by Amit Trivedi.

Zeb has also sung for Fitoor a song titled 'Honay Do Batiyan', in which she shares singing credits wth Nandini Srikar.

Singing for Fitoor has been a most pleasant experience for Zeb:

"The experience was pure fun! Swanand has been a dear friend since 'Kya Khyaal Hai'. We have worked on a few songs for an indie project over the years. I love studio time with Swanand around. Amit is also such a lovely person. He's happy and enthusiastic and really involved with the performance of every artist. I really love the songs he had for me, playback is so much more fun when you connect with the song and the sentiment. I'm lucky. There was great energy and it went really smoothly."

She describes the "serendipitous" way in which she got the opportunity to sing for Fitoor:

"I had met Amit Trivedi on my first trip to Mumbai in his studio in Juhu where we shared music with each other. We kept bumping into each other over the years and each time talked about working together. And then I met him again through Swanand and he was working on Fitoor. A few days later, I got a call from Amit's sudio for 'Haminustu'. I was thrilled to hear the song because it was such a powerful composition and one of Swanand's finest piece of writing, in my opinoin. I felt connected to it instantly. A few months later, I was approached for another beautiful song 'Honay Do Batiyan'."