Chaiyya Chaiyya
song performed by Sukhwinder Singh
"Chaiyya Chaiyya" (transl. Walk in shade) is an Indian pop-folk song, featured in the soundtrack of the Bollywood film Dil Se.., released in 1998. Based on Sufi music and Urdu poetry, the single was derived from the lyrics of the song "Tere Ishq Nachaya", written by Bulleh Shah, with music composed by A.R. Rahman, written by Gulzar, and sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Awasthi. The accompanying music video was directed by Mani Ratnam and picturised on Shah Rukh Khan and Malaika Arora, where they perform the song on the top of a moving train.
Composition
The lyrics of "Chaiyya Chaiyya" are based on the Sufi folk song "Tere Ishq Nachaya", with lyrics written by poet Bulleh Shah. Singer Sukhwinder Singh originally suggested the song to A.R. Rahman who was looking for a Punjabi devotional song to include on the soundtrack of Dil Se... Gulzar subsequently rewrote the lyrics and changed the name to "Chaiyya Chaiyya". This song has been composed in the Raga Megh / Madhumad Sarang (both of which correspond to Madhyamavati in Carnatic Music).
In an interview called "Sadhanai Tamilargal" alongside Mani Ratnam and Vairamuthu, A. R. Rahman stated that the song was originally composed for his album Vande Mataram. But as it didn't fit in, he decided to show it to Mani Ratnam, who loves these kind of catchy tunes. The very first time hearing the song, Mani Ratnam decided to shoot the song on a train.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Chaiyya Chaiyya” is song performed by Sukhwinder Singh. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Chaiyya, song and performed, not as a finished interpretation.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3773580. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1998.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chaiyya Chaiyya” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.