Laapataa Ladies Songwriting Credits by Arijit Singh

Every note on this record belongs to Ram Sampath and every word to one of three lyricists. Sampath composed all four songs and produced the album. Prashant Pandey wrote "Sajni" and "Beda Paar", Divy Nidhi Sharma wrote "Doubtwa", and Swanand Kirkire wrote "Dheeme Dheeme". Arijit Singh appears once, in the performer column of "Sajni", and in no writing credit anywhere on the album. That is the normal division of labour in Hindi film music, and the Filmfare Awards scored it the same way: Best Music Director to Sampath, Best Lyricist to Pandey for "Sajni", Best Male Playback Singer to Singh for that same song. Three prizes, three jobs, one track. Pandey got the work by messaging Sampath on social media rather than through a publisher, and walked away with half the album's lyrics. Singh's contribution was interpretive rather than authorial, and the film's makers were specific about what they wanted from it. Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan asked for a restrained, melancholic reading instead of his usual projection. Singh cut the vocal at his own studio and sent Sampath ten takes to choose from, which is a fair picture of what a playback singer actually controls: the take, not the song.