film's prologue scene, in which eagles are flying over the city, was the final scene to be filmed. Varma asked his cameraman to take a few shots of the city to use as inserts. While he was filming, the eagles were flying; Varma said the footage reminded him of the opening scene of Mackenna's Gold (1969) and was "seized by the desire to somehow incorporate them in the film". Instead of using it as an exterior cut, he used it for the opening to "create drama". For the opening sequence, Varma wrote and used a fake informational voice-over about eagles waiting for months for their prey because it was "profound-sounding". Varma filmed the song "Khallas" hand-held with a camera "as a guest at a seedy disco where people find it difficult to move around" because he did not want to have a "picture-perfect composition". Soundtrack The soundtrack album of Company was composed by Sandeep Chowta with lyrics written by Sahni, Nitin Raikwar and Taabish Romani. The album contains eight tracks, two of which are instrumentals. The vocals were performed by Asha Bhosle, Sudesh Bhosle, Sapna Awasthi, Altaf Raja, Babul Supriyo, Sonali Vajpayee, Sowmya Raoh and Chowta. It was released on 15 February 2002 by T-Series. The album met with mostly positive reviews. Taran Adarsh said the film "boasts of just one song, the immensely popular "Khallas", while the remaining songs form part of the background". Sheela Raval of India Today wrote that the songs seemingly blend with the film and said; "Even the sole song – "Khallas", lipsynched by the sexy Isha Koppikar – doesn't seem like a needless interjection". Jyoti Shukla of Rediff.com said "Khallas" is "out and out for front-benchers and breaks the tempo of the movie". Release and reception Company was released in India on 12 April 2002 in 295 screens, It was screened at the New York Asian Film Festival in 2003 in the Subway Cinema section for Asian films. followed by screenings at the Fribourg International Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival. The film was also screened retrospectively in 2006 at the Fantastic Fest, along with other Varma-produced films including Ab Tak Chhappan (2004), Ek Hasina Thi (2004) and Shiva (1990). Company was released in DVD format on 22 September 2006. It is also available on video-on-demand website ZEE5. Critical response Company received critical acclaim upon release. Taran Adarsh said the film has "a