Trivia Tunes: When Sonu Nigam was called to recreate Mohammed Rafi’s iconic song due to copyright issues

Readymade musicThere are re-creations. And there are readymade soundtrack albums—almost. In 2019, the entire five-track album of Luka Chhupi was re-created from earlier songs and fitted into the narrative from the T-Series repertoire. In 2024’s Crew, Tips’ top-sellers like ‘Choli ke peeche’ (Khal-Nayak), ‘Ghaghra’ (the Ila Arun chart-topper) and ‘Sona kitna sona hai’ (the chartbuster from Hero No. 1) were the prime attractions in an otherwise drab soundtrack.Wonder why it is so difficult to create fresh, new songs? Wonder if it is only about spending money on them? Or is it about finding talents to create and render effective songs (which are called “numbers” or “tracks” now in best ‘hep’ global lingo). Above all, when the original creators are still around (in this case, Ila Arun, Sameer Anjaan and Anand-Milind), why not get the originals themselves to re-create their magic anew? Surely, proven talents can never turn ‘dated’.A hint of newnessOften, older composers would also re-do a loved song, but in a new mould. Roshan, a humongous talent, loved his perennial hit, ‘Saari saari raat teri yaad sataye’ from the 1958 Aji Bas Shukriya so much that when he refashioned it as ‘Cheen liya re beimaan mera dil’ for Zindagi Aur Hum (1962) in the same Lata Mangeshkar’s voice, many did not notice the similarity.Lata sings twice againOf course, composers who worked in various language films, as mentioned in earlier items in this series, did this more frequently, like Salil Chowdhury (Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam) or Ravi (Hindi, Malayalam). But talking of Ravi, an all-time personal favourite of mine is ‘Dil mein kisi ke pyar ka jalta hua diya’ (Ek Mahal Ho Sapnon Ka/ 1975) which was a dulcet rework of the classic ‘Woh dil kahaan se laaoon’ from his Bharosa (1963).When Rafi almost sang for Sunny Deol and Bobby DeolWe all know that Mohammed Rafi has sung for Govinda in Farz Ki Jung, as the song was used when the same producer’s film for which it was created was shelved. But do you know, that had it not been for copyright issues, he would have ended up singing for Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol after being their father, Dharmendra’s favourite and most frequent playback voice?The song in question was the cult classic, ‘Main jat yamla pagla deewana’ from Pratiggya (1975), which Dharmendra wanted in their 2011 home production, Yamla Pagla Deewana for obvious reasons. The fresh and zingy song was to be used as it was in the new film, but the problem lay in the fact that the original song’s rights were with Saregama, while the new film’s music was with T-Series. This music label, at that point in time, was not a member of the Indian Music Industry (IMI) in which all other major companies were members. And so RDB was called in to re-create the song and it was recorded in Rafi ‘sound-alike’ Sonu Nigam’s voice!Daughter Pashmina’s choice of Rajesh Roshan re-creation to dance!Pashmina Roshan was introduced to the media at the song launch of another re-creation, ‘Ishq vishk pyaar vyaar’ (from the 2003 Ishq Vishk) for her debut film, Ishq Vishk Rebound. When I asked Pashmina which song of her father Rajesh Roshan would she like to feature in as a re-created dance number, her instant reply was ‘Jab chhaye mera jadoo’ from Lootmaar (1980).But for that to happen, we will need that iconic Asha Bhosle song to be re-created a third time, as it has already been reprised in Hattrick and Main Aur Charles!No film, but TV seriesVeterans Naushad, Khayyam and Ravindra Jain never worked with Sanjay Khan as actor in any film, but the actor-filmmaker had a great association with them when he later began to produce and direct TV serials. The Sword of Tipu Sultan (Naushad), 1857 Kranti and The Great Maratha (Khayyam) and Jai Hanuman (Ravindra Jain) turned out to be memorable occasions.A much more recent association was of actress Sridevi who produced Run (in which she did not act) with Himesh Reshammiya and Shakti—The Power with a guest song by Anu Malik. These two composers never worked with her as an actress then. A year later, Sridevi starred in her husband, Boney Kapoor’s TV serial Malini Iyer, which also had music by Himesh Reshammiya.Unusual associationsIn a unique example, Himesh Reshammiya first turned producer and story writer (besides title song composer) way back in 1995 before his film debut in Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya in 1998. The film’s cast was headed by Rajendra Kumar, the actor’s last film. And Deepika Padukone was first noticed by Farah Khan when she, as a screen debut, acted opposite Himesh in the music video of ‘Naam hai tera tera’ in his smash-hit 2007 non-film album, Aap Ka Suroor.Amit Trivedi has not scored music for a film of Salman Khan as of now but has an unusual association with him in 2011. Salman had come in as co-producer of Chillar Party only after the film was complete! And after this, he got Amit to record another version of his existing song ‘Aa rela hai apun’ as ‘Tai tai phiss’ and Ranbir Kapoor came in a cameo to enact the song in the end-credits!

Readymade music Trivia Tunes: When Sonu Nigam was called to recreate Mohammed Rafi’s iconic song due to copyright issues There are re-creations. And there are readymade soundtrack albums—almost. In 2019, the entire five-track album of Luka Chhupi was re-created from earlier songs and fitted into the narrative from the T-Series repertoire.

In 2024’s Crew , Tips’ top-sellers like ‘ Choli ke peeche ’ ( Khal-Nayak ), ‘ Ghaghra ’ (the Ila Arun chart-topper) and ‘ Sona kitna sona hai ’ (the chartbuster from Hero No. 1 ) were the prime attractions in an otherwise drab soundtrack. Wonder why it is so difficult to create fresh, new songs? Wonder if it is only about spending money on them? Or is it about finding talents to create and render effective songs (which are called “numbers” or “tracks” now in best ‘hep’ global lingo).

Above all, when the original creators are still around (in this case, Ila Arun, Sameer Anjaan and Anand-Milind), why not get the originals themselves to re-create their magic anew? Surely, proven talents can never turn ‘dated’. A hint of newness Often, older composers would also re-do a loved song, but in a new mould. Roshan, a humongous talent, loved his perennial hit, ‘ Saari saari raat teri yaad sataye ’ from the 1958 Aji Bas Shukriya so much that when he refashioned it as ‘ Cheen liya re beimaan mera dil ’ for Zindagi Aur Hum (1962) in the same Lata Mangeshkar’s voice, many did not notice the similarity.

Lata sin.