Airlift

Airlift is the official soundtrack to Raja Krishna Menon's 2016 political thriller of the same name, starring Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur. The film, released on January 22, 2016, dramatizes the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent evacuation of over 170,000 stranded Indian residents, believed to be the largest civilian evacuation in modern history. The album was composed primarily by Amaal Mallik, with contributions from Ankit Tiwari, with lyrics by Kumaar and others.

The standout track, "Soch Na Sake," sung by Arijit Singh and Tulsi Kumar, became the album's popular centerpiece, winning the Mirchi Music Award for Listeners Choice Song of the Year at the 9th Mirchi Music Awards (2017) and the GiMA MTV Duet of the Year Award. It is an adaptation of the 2013 Punjabi track "Soch" by Hardy Sandhu, reworked with new arrangements and blended Hindi-Punjabi lyrics.

Airlift was a major critical and commercial success, earning over 228 crore rupees worldwide against a 30 crore budget, and receiving an 85% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes. Its music provided the emotional counterweight to an otherwise tense narrative, and the album is notable for its integration of Punjabi musical sensibilities into a mainstream Bollywood context.