God nose, Himeshbhai!
Javed Akhtar is flummoxed by Himesh Reshammiya's way of working while recording the music of Namastey London
Aditi Jayakar Kane
Creativity is combustible, as director Vipul Shah recently discovered recently. The director chose Javed Akhtar and Himesh Reshammiya to create music for Namastey London as he wanted to merge two diverse styles of music together. What resulted was plenty of studio room cacophony between the two artistes. Himesh Reshammiya
Vipul Shah says, "When I chose Himeshji and Javedsaab I was aware that it might be difficult for them to work together as they have different styles of working. But, I wanted to try something different. I wanted Javedsaab who is one of the greatest writers of Hindi cinema to write the lyrics for my songs. And I thought it would be the right time to work with Himesh as he was reinventing himself. I thought if these two styles come together the result will be outstanding."
Things were not smooth from the beginning. "Himesh, Javedsaab and I were all new to one another, so there was a tense situation at the beginning. Once the ice was broken, there were a lot of arguments and fights.
But they were all for the betterment of the album, and no offence was taken personally." Task, master: Javed Akhtar
Vipul Shah recalls some tense moments. "There was a time when we were recording the song 'Yahi hota pyaar', when Himesh wanted the mukhda to be the antara and vice versa. I agreed with Himesh, but Javedsaab didn't. There were heated arguments about it, because when Javedsaab wants something, he gets totally involved and fights for it. But that night when Javedsaab went home he rewrote the whole song and showed it to us the next day. We were overjoyed."
Shah says that although it is the director's prerogative to take the final call, he did not want to take sides in these creative fights. "I wanted to keep the atmosphere open to criticism. I thank Javedsaab for allowing us the space to fight with each other and not carrying his star status while working with us youngsters."
Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
Anupamaa
CID
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
