“BC Sutta,” which was created by Zeest, broke through the South Asian scene like a raging storm back in 2005.
Last week, when VICE reached out to Saqib, now 37, and his brother Sohail Abdullah Aziz, 42, who manages Zeest, the duo went back in time to talk about what shot them into fame, and keeps them relevant even now.“I knew someone who had a small music website and we had sent him the song to upload. Within a week, he called me up and told me, ‘Saqib bhai, bada masla ho gaya hain (Saqib brother, a big problem has come up). My website has crashed.’”
“One day, when he caught me smoking, he was so shocked, he said, ‘Bhenchod sutta. Sutta pee raha hain?’ (Fucker, cigarette. You’re smoking a cigarette?) Later on, this became a joke among us for many days. Then it hit me that we can do something with this phrase.”
But the brothers did hit a bunch of roadblocks while trying to record the song in 2005. Saqib said that many recording studio owners either quoted really high rates, or got upset with the lyrics.“Considering our generation gap, we barely had links with our Indian relatives. When this song went viral, we had a chance to connect with them for the first time.”
An Indian news outlet reported the song being downloaded at least 7,600 times in the first 21 days of its release. By then, according to the report, the song had “covertly” snuck across borders and “bypassed moral censors” to become a youth anthem for South Asians. The brothers said they got great feedback not just from South Asians, but also people from countries like Myanmar, Germany and Turkey. “It was surreal, and felt amazing,” said Saqib. But the duo wants to reiterate that the message is bigger than a bunch of cuss words. “Sure, the words ‘bhenchod sutta’ have a certain charm in it,” said Saqib. “But the song is not just my personal story, but everyone’s. You can replace ‘sutta’ with anything you want in life.”Some of their musician friends also warned them against recording the song, and told them they’ll get censored. But Saqib was determined.
Saqib said that while many millennials still revere the song, its charm has eluded the younger generation. Over the last several years, the brothers have often been asked why they didn’t follow up their internet fame and launch more music, or go mainstream with the famous song. “Some of it has to do with our own laziness and getting caught up in our personal lives,” said Sohail, who is currently in a government job. Saqib, for his part, took up other projects like commercial photography and art, and recently became a father, too.An Indian news outlet reported the song being downloaded at least 7,600 times in the first 21 days of its release. By then, according to the report, the song had “covertly” snuck across borders and “bypassed moral censors” to become a youth anthem for South Asians.
In some family gatherings, Saqib does end up sanitising the song a little by replacing “bhenchod” with perhaps a “bhaisaab” or “bhaijaan” – both variations of the term “brother”. To ensure their surprise megahit lives on, the brothers are also fiddling with the idea of releasing a music video for “BC Sutta”. But re-recording it, even with the best of equipment, is out of the question. “You don’t recreate a legend,” said Sohail. “It’s like creating the Taj Mahal, and then making a duplicate in blue or pink.”Follow Pallavi Pundir on Twitter.“Sure, the words ‘bhenchod sutta’ have a certain charm in it. But the song is not just my personal story, but everyone’s. You can replace ‘sutta’ with anything you want in life.”