The track was composed by the then-relatively new duo Sachin–Jigar. According to interviews, the brief from Nair was paradoxical: "Make it sound like every 90s item song, but also like nothing anyone has ever heard." The result was a Frankenstein’s monster of a beat—a thumping dhol mixed with a detuned synth bass, topped with a chorus that sounds like a sleepy child being woken up by a disco ball. The lyrics, penned by the irreverent lyricist Raftaar (yes, the rapper), are intentionally nonsensical. "Dreamum Wakeupum" isn't a phrase; it’s a state of mind. The song’s power lies in its rejection of lyrical profundity. It’s pure, unfiltered phonetics designed to be shouted, not sung.
Unlike the slick, soulless auto-tune anthems that dominate playlists, "Dreamum Wakeupum" has a pulse. That pulse is the sound of a crew laughing, a young actress forgetting her inhibitions, and a director who decided that the most empowering thing a woman could do on screen is dance like no one is watching—even when millions eventually would. Making of Dreamum Wakeupum
In the sprawling, high-decibel landscape of Bollywood item numbers, most songs are meticulously engineered for a short shelf life: six weeks on the charts, a few hundred million YouTube views, and a slow fade into nostalgic obscurity. But every so often, a track emerges that defies its own programming. "Dreamum Wakeupum" from Gippi is one such glorious, glitter-bombed anomaly. A song so bizarre, so unapologetically absurd, and so oddly sincere that it transcended its B-movie origins to become a cult phenomenon. Its making is not a story of calculated success, but one of joyful chaos, limited resources, and the unpredictable magic that happens when a director decides to let a thirteen-year-old’s fever dream dictate the choreography. The track was composed by the then-relatively new
The most fascinating element of the song’s making is its star: a very young, non-dancer actress named Riya Shukla, who played the fantasy version of Gippi. In any other production, a song of this nature would be handed to a seasoned item-dance specialist. Here, the director leaned into the awkwardness. "Dreamum Wakeupum" isn't a phrase; it’s a state of mind
To understand the making of "Dreamum Wakeupum," one must first understand its context. Gippi was a small, coming-of-age film about a plus-sized teen girl navigating the hellscape of high school, directed by Sonam Nair and produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions. This was not Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani ; it was a modest, heartfelt project with a modest budget. The mandate for the song was simple: a quintessential Bollywood "dream sequence" where the protagonist, Gippi, imagines her glamorous fantasy self.
When Gippi released, it was a box office whisper. But "Dreamum Wakeupum" found a second life on the internet. First, it became a meme. Then, it became a workout trend (the "Dreamum Wakeupum" challenge). Then, it became a staple at college fests and drag shows. Why? Because in its making, the song captured something authentic: the permission to be silly.