Dhoom (soundtrack)

The soundtrack and film score for Dhoom were composed by Pritam and Salim–Sulaiman, respectively, while Sameer wrote the lyrics for the songs. Sunidhi Chauhan, Shankar Mahadevan, Shaan, Shreya Ghoshal, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Sowmya Raoh, Vasundhara Das, Kunal Ganjawala, Gayatri Ganjawala, KK and Indee, performed the vocals for the songs.

Dhoom is Pritam's third collaboration with Gadhvi after Tere Liye (2001) and Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai (2002), where he shared credits with Jeet Gannguli (as Jeet–Pritam).^[1] He admitted that the music was the third important aspect, after action and comedy, while Gadhvi wanted the music to be racy as the film.^[1] He further added "The biggest problem of doing a Yash Raj film is their legacy of music [...] Their music has always been remembered. So that puts added pressure on you. You have to match the standards."^[1]

"Dilbara" was the first song to composed for the film, when the film was not even titled.^[2] During the music sittings with Chopra and Gadhvi, the former put the words "dhoom machale, dhoom machale, dhoom" as the hook line and melody of the song.^[2] Pritam, who did not remember the scratch lyrics, had immediately locked Chopra's hookline along with the rest of the crew members, approving Dhoom as the title for the film, and "Dhoom Machale" as the title song.^[2] In a 2022 interview to Film Companion, Pritam recalled that he used to bribe a factory worker in Saregama, by giving him sweets, to replace an older track with a newly remastered one.^[3]

Chopra had planned an English version for "Dhoom Machale" and brought the Thai American singer Tata Young to record it.^[4] At the recording studio, Young pronounced "dhoom" as "doom", as they intentionally removed the "dh" sound by Chopra for appeal.^[2] The addition of an English version, gave another dimension to the original title track, according to Pritam.^[2]

The album was first issued in CDs and cassettes under the Saregama label on 16 July 2004.^[5] When Yash Chopra launched the company's subsidiary music label YRF Music,^[6] the soundtrack to Dhoom was later distributed to digital platforms under the YRF label.^[7][8]

According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 22,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's third highest-selling.^[9] Lata Sinha of The Telegraph noted that, "the music industry hit rock bottom until Yash Raj Films' Dhoom and its title song by Pritam spread like wildfire across the nation".^[10]

The track "Dhoom Dhoom" proved to be commercially successful, becoming the singer's most successful single in India.^[11] Its success prompted Young to release an extended play under the same title in 2005.^[12] Despite its success, Pritam was accused of plagiarism by Canadian songwriter Jesse Cook as his song "Mario Takes a Walk" from his album Gravity (1996) had similarities with "Dhoom Machale" and "Dhoom Dhoom".^[13]

The soundtrack's success prompted Pritam to becoming one of the leading music composers in the Hindi film industry.^[14][15] Pritam reprised his role as a composer for the forthcoming films in the franchise: Dhoom 2 (2006) and Dhoom 3 (2013).^[16]