Abhijeet Bhattacharya, in a new interview, shared his ‘not-so-pleasant’ experience of working with AR Rahman when they collaborated on ‘Ae Nazneen Suno Na’ song for Dil Hi Dil Mein.
Abhijeet Bhattacharya never shies away from making controversial statements in the media, and now he is back with yet another contentious take! In his recent interview with a YouTube channel, the noted singer shared his disappointing experience of working with music maestro AR Rahman during their only collaboration, ‘Ae Nazneen Suno Na’ song for Kathir’s 1999 film Dil Hi Dil Mein.
While speaking with Bollywood Thikana when Abhijeet was asked why he never teamed up with Rahman again after this Kunal Singh-Sonali Bendre number, the singer revealed that his experience of recording the song with the Oscar-winning music composer was not as positive as he had hoped.
Taking a dig at AR Rahman’s preference for working at odd hours, Abhijeet said, “During that time, I was getting calls from all the major composers. Anu Malik would be on the line, and then Anand-Milind would call, and then Jatin-Lalit would call. I was busy dubbing all the time. I went (to meet Rahman) and was left waiting at the hotel.”
He continued, “I decided that I can’t keep waiting, and that we could record in the morning. At 2 am, I get a call summoning me to the studio. Am I crazy? I said that I was asleep. I went in the morning, but he was not there. They don’t have the habit of working at regular hours. I’m used to working in a systematic manner. Now, in the name of creativity, if you say that you will record at 3:33 am, I don’t get it.”
Abhijeet further said that the ace composer kept delaying the recording and eventually wasn’t even present in the studio. Instead, he had left his assistant as the in-charge for their recording. He added that the film he sang for was a flop, and nobody watched it.
“Because of the air-conditioning in my room, I had a cold. But he insisted that I sing. I’ve done a lot of hit songs for super-flop movies, and this was one of them. Nobody watched the film. The song belongs to Rahman. I kept asking for Rahman but didn’t get a firm answer. An artiste doesn’t become big or small by doing these things…I was told that I should have waited for him and left later. But I told them that I had prior commitments,” the singer shared.
Talking about Dil Hi Dil Mein, the 1999 film starring Kunal Singh and Sonali Bendre was a box office flop. It’s Tamil version Kadhalar Dhinam was Sonali’s acting debut in Kollywood.
