Deepak Sharma
New Delhi, Apr 23 (IANS): One of the most successful and equally controversial music director duo of Nadeem-Shravan finally 'separated' as Shravan Rathod(67) who tested Covid positive, last week, passed away on Thursday night in Mumbai. Speaking from London, Shravan's senior partner Nadeem Saifi, said, "The news of Shannu's death has left me devastated. For a grand comeback, we were planning a world tour, since last year..but destiny had something else in store for me. It has suddenly crushed our dreams ..forever."
If blockbuster scripts of Salim-Javed shaped Bollywood's movies of the seventies, it was the melody of Nadeem-Shravan which redefined romance in Hindi films in the nineties. With the release of Aashiqui(1990) which sold 20 million units and broke all records to become the best selling Bollywood music of all time, Nadeem Shravan set off to redefine songs of Indian cinema." I remember how we became superstars in just three hours of the first show of Aashiqui. From movie critics to film producers, and recording companies to event managers, everyone flocked to us. No wonder, after Aashiqui's release, all top ten songs of Binaca Geetmala (a top chartbuster radio show) were from our film. I feel, Shravan played an outstanding role in bringing back melody to hindi movies. It was indeed a turning point in the film industry, because the 1980s have seen how the quality of songs have gone down and degraded Bollywood music," said Nadeem Saifi.
On Shravan's craft of creating superhit melodies, Nadeem elaborated: "I have never seen a harmonium player like him. He was a perfectionist. He played the reed-organ while I was a percussionist. Often we created the best music in a few hours. Shravan had a touch of music maestros like Shankar (of Shankar-Jaikishan fame) or SD Burman. In fact we both were inspired by Burman da and Shankar Jaikishan. At our studios or at my house in Central Mumbai, we used to have long sittings. Sameer(lyricist) was always present. That was our core music team. Sometimes Gulshan Kumar ji(founder of T-series) used to join us. I believe with the grace of God, we went on to create great numbers, one after another... so effortlessly."
After Aashiqui's historic success, Saajan (1991) starring Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan broke all records. Another box office hit, Deewana(1992) which introduced Shahrukh Khan became one of the highest-grossing films of the year, due to its mesmerising music. On the unprecedented spree of super hit melodies, Nadeem explained, "We had the talent. But we were not getting the right opportunity. After years of struggle when we went to Ramesh Taurani, of Tips (music industry), he rejected all our songs of Aashiqui saying that numbers were too slow to be included in a Bollywood movie. Later we approached Gulshan Papaji through Mithun Chakraborty, our mentor. I remember when Papaji was listening to our numbers at Mithun da's house, I told him...we are giving you songs which will create history, but our songs need to be marketed at a big scale. Instantly Papaji, agreed and assured that the music album (of Aashiqui) will be launched at a very high scale. He kept to his promise, and rest is history."
By 1992, Nadeem-Shravan had delivered over a dozen hits. The producers started queuing up at their house. "One day Sudhkar Bokade called us. Bokade sahab revealed that though he has signed a very famous music director duo for his film Saajan and had also recorded one song, yet he was willing to sign us. For a moment I and Shravan got uninterested, but Bokade Sahab kept insisting that we must sign his film. Finally we signed Saajan and its music too, topped the popular charts," Nadeem quipped.
"Actually Aashiqui, Saajan, Sadak and Deewana were primarily music dominated hit films. These trend setting films convinced the distributors that without such chartbusters, the films will not make money. In fact it was distributors who demanded music of Nadeem Shravan. By next year or so, producers were ready to offer blank cheques to us ....aisa laga Allah meharban ho gye hum dono par," felt Nadeem Saifi, who mostly lives in London or in Dubai these days.
On selection of singers, Nadeem said that one big mistake both of them committed was that they ignored several talented playback artists. "I and Shravan later felt that we over estimated Kumar Sanu and Alka Yagnik. Though we gave a few numbers to Babul Supriyo, Udit Narayan, Shaan, Sonu Nigam, Sudesh Bhosle or S P Balasubrahmanyam but we relied much on Kumar Sanu. Shravan used to say that we should have given more numbers to Sonu Nigam or Babul Supriyo. But because of Sanu we neglected Abhijeet....and I think one of the most talented singers Shaan was also not properly encouraged by us. I really feel sorry that at the peak of our career, we went primarily with Saanu and ignored the rest. However, it's quite strange that Kumar Saanu never realised that it was Nadeem Shravan's music which made him a top voice of the nineties," elaborated Nadeem.
Remembering Shravan, the partner percussionist got emotional: "Shannu(Shravan) was a very kind hearted person. Jitne vo talented the..utne he bade jigar waale bhi the. He was like a younger brother to me and always went out of the way to sort out my problems. When name, fame and money, all started pouring in, we never suffered from any superiority complex or had any differences. Though our lifestyle changed but at the core of our hearts, we were the same Nadeem-Shravan. Narrating an interesting incident, where both these music directors dictated terms to famous producer-director Subhash Ghai, Nadeem recalled," Once I and Shravan went to Mr Ghai's house to sign Pardes(1997). At his place, Ghai sahab told us that before discussing the film, we have to first sign a contract, which even Dilip Kumar and Rajkumar had to honour. We bluntly refused to sign the papers and went on to ask Mr Ghai that we will do the film if you first order two luxury cars for us. A visibly perturbed Ghai got furious for a moment...but he wanted our music in his film so after a few minutes he called his relative on the phone and instructed him to book two new luxury cars for us. That was the power and influence of Shravan...and me on the Industry, that was the power of success...that a man of Ghai's stature had to comply with our demands."
On question of Gulshan Kumar's murder and Nadeem's involvement in the case and his subsequent distancing with Shravan, the famous music director clarified, "it was a conspiracy against me. I still call him (Gulshan) papaji and continue to love him so much, how can I even think of taking such a step? It was a concocted story...and now all relevant courts have exonerated me. As far as relations with Shravan is concerned, keeping aside a few years, we have always been too close. We had immense respect and love for each other. Without Shravan, Nadeem is just fifty percent," Nadeem said with a choked voice over the phone, requesting "I am always open to any question, but please let us not discuss anything else other than Shravan and his music. I hope people will understand that I have lost half of myself today."