Is it the power of the melody, two timeless voices, or the universal experience of heartbreak? What makes Agar Tum Saath Ho from Tamasha (2015) relevant over a decade after it first released? Since last week, the poignant ballad from Imtiaz Ali’s movie has claimed the top spot as the most streamed Indian song on Spotify. When mid-day reached out to its composer AR Rahman, he recalled that the song came to him after several attempts. 

“It’s a song people can universally relate to because we all go through problems and need a shoulder to lean on. ‘Lean on me’ was the brief. We had to go through the process three times to get there. Once we got the song, we knew we had something special,” he told mid-day. The composer added that getting “iconic voices” like Alka Yagnik and Arijit Singh to sing the track added to its magic.