 The cat is out of the bag. Ekta Kapoor and her director Milan Luthria
were looking for a neo-Helen for the longest time. The original plan of
discovering a completely untried dancer failed as time was running out.
They’ve finally zeroed in on Gauhar Khan who has been secretly jiving
away to Helen’s most popular cabaret ‘Piya tu ab to aaja’ for Luthria’s
‘Once Upon A Time In The West’.
Raju Khan has been brought to do the choreography for what’s touted
as the most expensive cabaret ever shot in Bollywood. Gauhar danced to
the beats of ‘Piya tu ab to aaja’ so hard last week that a shard of
shattered glass wounded her leg.
The director and her excited producer intend to unveil their new-age
Helen and the prized recreation of the smoldering cabaret number from
the 1970s at an elaborate press conference later this month.
But the behind-the-scenes stress and arguments to get this cabaret
item in place are even more interesting than the cabaret itself.
Apparently the composer Pritam Chakraborty refused to do a straight
re-mix of ‘Piya to ab to aaja’. There were heated arguments between the
composer and the film’s producer and director over the issue.
Finally Pritam got his way and recorded a totally new version of the
song. Says Pritam, “I really see no point in doing a straight-off remix,
especially when it’s an R D Burman track. That means the original is
still fresh in the listeners’ mind. Why should I tamper with an
evergreen? So what I’ve done for Milan’s cabaret is to incorporate just a
bit of RD’s ‘Piya to ab to aaja’ from ‘Caravan’ and ‘Duniya mein logon
ko’ from ‘Apna Desh’. The rest of the song is my original composition.”
Apparently when Gauhar Khan heard the song she flipped out. Laughs
Pritam, “Yes they all loved the song. But I won’t do a re-mix of R D
Burman or any other composition.” Rohan Sippy’s Abhishek
Bachchan-featured drug-busting Goan drama has a hitch. Composer Pritam
Chakraborty is aghast to hear that Rohan Sippy has titled his film ‘Dum
Maro Dum’ and that the makers would like him to do a remix of the
number.
Pritam vigorously says, “Like I said I don’t do remixes, ever. And
certainly not re-mixes of R.D. Burman compositions. RD has taken his
songs as far as they can go. There’s nothing more that I or anyone else
can do to an R.D Burman track. So I’ll just use RD’s famous opening riff
from ‘Dum maro dum’. The rest of the composition will be mine. In any
case this will be an instrumental piece for the credit titles in ‘Dum
Maro Dum’.”
Earlier Pritam refused to do the re-mix of ‘Aa dekhe zara’ for Neil
Nitin Mukesh. “See I won’t do re-mixes anyway. But if it’s an R D Burman
song like ‘Piya tu ab to aaja’, ‘Dum maro dum’ or ‘Aa dekhe zara’ then
sawaal hi nahin paida hota hai. Unless I can re-work a riff or a couple
of riffs into my own composition like I did with the ‘been’ music from
‘Nagin’ in ‘Love Aaj Kal’.”
In fact Pritam didn’t even know Sippy’s film was titled ‘Dum Maro
Dum’. Apparently the other title being seriously considered was ‘Subah
Ko Karo Salaam’. Says Pritam, “Even that would’ve been a problem to
compose since R.D Burman had done a fabulous job of those words ‘Subah
Ko Karo Salaam’ in a TV serial of that title.”
Subhash K Jha/ Sampurn Wire
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