Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela

The soundtrack to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 2013 film Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela is unusual for a production of its scale in that Bhansali composed the entire score himself rather than handing it to an outside music director, a choice that gave the eleven-track, forty-seven-minute album a tighter thematic connection to his direction of the film.

Rather than build a generic big-budget spectacle score, Bhansali travelled into the interior of Gujarat to record authentic local folk sound, then layered it against Hindustani classical touches, Marathi folk color, and the ornamentation of vintage Hindi film music. The result is an album released on October 4, 2013 through Eros Music that grounds the film's operatic, Shakespeare-inspired story of star-crossed lovers and clan violence in a specific regional texture rather than a generalized Bollywood sheen.

Laal Ishq, the album's fourth track, marked the first collaboration between Bhansali and singer Arijit Singh, and became one of the soundtrack's most celebrated highlights, drawing on temple bells, shehnai, and sitar alongside additional vocals from folk singer Osman Mir and Altamash Faridi. Critics praised the album broadly for balancing folk authenticity with commercial accessibility, and it went on to earn multiple award nominations, including wins for its female vocal performances and composition work.