Trivia Tunes: Nadeem-Shravan exited Baazigar because it was a thriller about an “anti-hero”

The rare oasisFor admirers of the true-blue Hindi film song, it’s a rare joy to hear a properly written, composed and sung melody nowadays that is also well-placed in a proper situation. And that is the case now with Sachin-Jigar’s ‘Aaj ki raat’ from Stree 2. Written by Amitabh Bhattacharya and sung by Madhubanti and Divya Kumar, the song is filmed on Tamannaah Bhatia as a groovy and folksy dance number.Missed chancesAnu Malik, for all his versatility, remains unfortunate in some key matters. He had signed a film named Prem Granth, in Raj Kapoor’s lifetime, for RK Films. The film was to be directed and produced by Rajiv Kapoor with the actor himself in the lead, and Anu had even recorded a song. But the film was never made.Another example was the film, Beauty Queen, which was to be produced and directed by Dev Anand on the fashion world. But it never took off. And last but not least, Sanjay Leela Bhansali had revealed to me that he wanted Anu Malik to score Devdas because he had had a tiff with his Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam composer Ismail Darbar!Javed Akhtar’s missesLaxmikant-Pyarelal and Javed Akhtar, then the favourites of Anil Kapoor, were to originally score the music of Beta. But things apparently soured when the trio was told to “rework” a popular Ilaiyaraja composition, which was finally heard by us as ‘Dhak dhak karne lagaa’. Indra Kumar had no “option” but to move back to the hit music team of his previous blockbuster, Dil—Anand-Milind and Sameer.Nadeem-Shravan’s insistence on Sameer also caused Javed Akhtar’s exit from Baazigar. But as it happened, N-S also left the film, convinced that a thriller with an anti-hero would have no scope for music. And the magic their ‘replacement’ Anu Malik did with this “un-musical subject” is now history!The Shammi Kapoor-Bindu Hungama!An ecstatic Bindu once told me that after watching ‘Hungama ho gaya’—incidentally the first song to be shot in a real discotheque (as pubs were called in the 1970s)—Shammi Kapoor was floored by all aspects of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal-Verma Malik-Asha Bhosle cult hit from Anhonee. Bindu was told that when its choreographer, P.L. Raj, showed the song to him, the actor known for endless iconic dance numbers actually watched the song back-to-back a full 19 times at a studio and then called Bindu up and raved about it and complimented her.The ‘Bindiya’ behind the chartbusterAnd speaking of Bindu, it was she who played the central role in Raj Khosla’s mega-hit Do Raaste, though technically, Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz played the leads. And Bindu became a hot property after the film’s release. The most popular song from the all-hit score was ‘Bindiya chamkegi’ filmed on Mumtaz, and when it became a roaring hit, lyricist Anand Bakshi told Bindu, “I wrote this song for you! You are actually my bindiya (a variation of the word ‘Bindu’) and I knew you would shine (chamkegi) after this film!”Exchange of voices!In this series, we have already featured the case of Mother India where Manna Dey’s playback, went in just one line for the actor whose voice in the song was Mohammed Rafi! We have another prominent example in the Door Ki Awaz hit, ‘Hum bhi agar bacche hote’ sung by Mohammed Rafi (for Johnny Walker) and Manna Dey again (for leading man Joy Mukerji) with Asha Bhosle (for Saira Banu). But due to filming details, in the line ‘Kolu ke hum bail bane hain’ the two voices are exchanged, and Joy gets Rafi and Johnny gets Manna Dey! Composer Ravi could not be possibly faulted here!Jatin-Lalit’s association with Subhash Ghai!In 1998, veteran actress Saira Banu had produced a TV serial, Duniya Ke Sitare, on film celebrities. The show has a fabulous nostalgic tidbit value: Jatin-Lalit composed its title-song and guess who wrote its lyrics? None other than Subhash Ghai, who was close to Dilip Kumar after Vidhaata, Karma and Saudagar! This remains Jatin-Lalit’s only association with Subhash Ghai, who wrote his first song for a movie, ‘Kabhi paa liya’, in his own production Jogger’s Park (2003) five years later!