Ed Sheeran in a still from the “Sapphire” behind the scenes video. Photo: YouTube
A couple of weeks after Ed Sheeran’s “Sapphire” music video won hearts on the internet, the British pop singer-songwriter is back with a behind-the-scenes short film chronicling his first real taste of India. Over a whirlwind three weeks, he met with icons like Shah Rukh Khan, collaborated with Arijit Singh, and jammed in autorickshaws, all while keeping friends and family close through it all.
From visiting the sets of the film Baahubali at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, to kicking around a football in Shillong, to navigating bustling spice markets in Old Delhi, to jamming with classical musicians in Mumbai, Sheeran seems to have ticked a lot off his list while working on “Sapphire,” a track off his upcoming album Play. Pop star Armaan Malik is also seen in one photo of Sheeran filming. “I felt like every part of this video, there was a kind of pilgrimage to get each shot,” he says in the video. Describing the country as having a “rich tapestry of culture,” he marvels at its beauty and energy, while also admitting that it was “full-on chaos.” He adds, “I just hope we’ve done justice to the beauty of the country and what it holds in it.”
Among the highlights, no doubt, was hanging out with Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan and visiting his friend and singing star Arijit Singh in West Bengal. Sitting down at the Indian restaurant Gymkhana in London, Sheeran narrates how Khan invited him to play padel at his home in Bandra. “We played padel for three hours and he pitched me an idea, [said to] do it whenever,” Sheeran recounts. That idea, as Sheeran has confirmed in a comment, is a Hindi song for one of Khan’s film projects. “By the time we’d done dinner, I’d gone and sung this whole tune in Hindi, which took a while to do,” he says. Soon after, Sheeran asked Khan to do a cameo in the “Sapphire” video.
Working closely with Singh, Sheeran sang the Punjabi hook in the song. He traveled to Singh’s hometown in West Bengal, charting a nearly 36-hour long journey from Bengaluru to Kolkata and then on to the village. He called working with Singh “the final jigsaw piece of this song.” After riding around on a bike with Singh (“This is madness. This is incredible,” Singh is heard saying) and going boating, the duo headed into the studio, where Sheeran nailed the Punjabi take with surprising ease. “That was quick,” Singh says.
In a separate post on Instagram, Sheeran spoke about his bond with the Indian singer. He says, “I first became aware of Arijit Singh’s music when I watched [2013 Bollywood movie] Aashiqui 2 and heard ‘Tum Hi Ho.’ I was proper spellbound by his voice, the song, the scene in the movie. I checked him out, and got in touch, and said ‘Whenever you wanna sing together, I’m down.’”
The friendship developed as Sheeran joined Singh on stage to sing “Perfect” in London in 2024. Sheeran recalls, “I played him an early version of ‘Sapphire’ in the dressing room, and he instantly had ideas for instruments and melodies. We then were pen pals over email for a bit, until I was in India for [my] tour. I said to him, ‘We should finish this in person.’ He said, ‘Please come to my hometown so I can show you my home and culture.’”
The chance to travel to meet Singh also gave Sheeran the opportunity to take his dad deeper into India. After traveling around the town, studio time, and dinner, Sheeran says he got to take his father to see the sunset and moon. “[It] was a proper core memory I’ll always cherish with my father, and I’m honored to have created in this way with Arijit,” Sheeran recalls.
He’s all praise for Singh. “He’s one of the most talented humans I’ve ever met, and I’m so grateful he shared his talent with me for this song. The full Punjabi version we recorded will be out in a couple of weeks,” Sheeran says in the post.
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