Abhijeet Bhattacharya recently shared his less-than-ideal experience working with Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman. The two collaborated on just one song, Ae Nazneen Suno Na. In an interview with Bollywood Thikana, the singer revealed why he had only worked with Rahman once.
Abhijeet explained, “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.”
“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”, he added.
Abhijeet further explained that an assistant of Rahman was present at the studio. He said that despite having a cold due to the air conditioning in his room, Abhijeet was urged to 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. An artist doesn’t become big or small by behaving like this. I was told I should have waited for Rahman, but I had prior commitments,” he shared.
Abhijeet also reflected on an almost collaboration for the film Rangeela, noting that this was the first time he saw AR Rahman working during regular hours. In a previous interview with Lehren Retro, he had described his experience with Rahman’s creative process as “unmusical.” He recalled being told that the song had been altered, with Udit Narayan’s vocals being used for the character. “They called me saying the song has been changed and since Udit has already sung for the character, your vocals will be used in a different way. I realised that this is not a place for music. He was just recording patches,” Abhijeet said.
