निशाना

Nishaana (निशाना) is the rap single from Blurr (2022), the ZEE5 Original psychological thriller and Taapsee Pannu's debut as a producer. Composed by Aditya Pushkarna, the track is written and performed entirely by rapper-singer Srushti Tawade, who was given complete creative freedom by the Blurr team to write, compose, and shape the song in her own style. Released on 8 December 2022 via Zee Music Company, just ahead of the film's 9 December ZEE5 premiere, Nishaana was directed as a music video by Akash Bhatia — who had previously worked with Taapsee Pannu on Looop Lapeta — and visually charts a range of emotional states, from courage and defiance to fear, echoing the psychological unraveling of the film's blind protagonist investigating her twin sister's death. Tawade publicly described the overwhelming response the song received and credited the production team's trust for letting the track authentically reflect her own artistic voice, distinguishing it from a conventional film song and positioning it closer to an independent rap statement inserted into a mainstream OTT thriller.

Aditya Pushkarna's composition for Nishaana leans into a spare, beat-forward hip-hop backdrop that leaves room for Srushti Tawade's rap delivery to carry the track's tension. Rather than a conventional film-song melody, the arrangement is built to serve Tawade's cadence and phrasing — she has said the song 'reflects me and my style' precisely because the production gave her latitude over the writing and composition process, an unusual degree of authorial control for a soundtrack song embedded inside a mainstream OTT thriller.

Written entirely by Tawade herself, Nishaana's lyrics use the word 'nishaana' (target/mark) in its double sense — a literal aim as in marksmanship, and the figurative sense of being singled out or blamed — mirroring the film's central conceit of a woman losing her sight while being drawn into the orbit of her dead twin sister's mystery. The rap verses trace a psychological journey through courage, fear, and resolve rather than a linear narrative, giving the song an interior, almost confessional register distinct from typical item or romantic filmi lyrics.

Blurr, directed by Ajay Bahl and produced by Zee Studios, Outsiders Films and Echelon Productions (marking Taapsee Pannu's debut as a producer), is a Hindi remake of the Spanish thriller Julia's Eyes. It follows Gayatri, a woman with deteriorating eyesight investigating the mysterious death of her visually impaired twin sister. Nishaana's music video, directed by Akash Bhatia, was built as a standalone visual companion to this plot, using Srushti Tawade's rap performance to externalize the psychological states — determination, fear, defiance — that the film's heroine moves through across her investigation. The song premiered on 8 December 2022, a day ahead of the film's 9 December 2022 release on ZEE5.

As a promotional single for a mid-scale OTT thriller, Nishaana did not chart on mainstream music charts, but it drew notable press attention for handing an emerging rapper full creative control over a film soundtrack moment — a relatively rare arrangement in Hindi cinema, where playback songs are typically written to a composer's or director's brief rather than the performer's own pen. The song's YouTube upload on the Zee Music Company channel has drawn over two million views, a solid figure for a standalone rap single tied to a modestly-released streaming film, and it remains a reference point in Srushti Tawade's discography as one of her higher-profile Bollywood-adjacent placements.