Will Smith: Aladdin's music helped me play Genie        

Will Smith says he had a monumental task of doing justice to the classic Disney character of Genie in Aladdin but the film's music, composed by veteran Alan Menken, helped his performance. The actor takes on the iconic role, which was earlier played by the late Robin Williams in the 1992 film. 

Will Smith says the biggest challenge of playing the role was "being able to find a way to not make it jarring and disturbing by how different it would be."  He says he wanted to make people feel at home while they were getting something new and special.

    "The music was really how I saw my way in to be able to play the Genie. That first day messing around with 'Friend Like Me', I noticed that it was in the BPM range of old-school hip-hop. So when I started playing with it, it was like, 'Oh man! This lends itself to a tempo and a flavour that I really understand'," says Will Smith. 

    "And that showed me how I could pay homage to Robin and not change the songs so much, so people would have the nostalgic value, but then also be able to come with my own flavour," he adds.

    Directed by Guy Ritchie, Aladdin also features Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine and Mena Massoud as the title character. The film released in India today.