Lata Mangeshkar was 75 years old at the time, but it was befitting that she sings the songs as these tunes were originally composed by Madan Mohan decades ago, for her to sing! The song ‘Tere Liye’ which became the song of the year then, was based on a rejected tune for the song ‘ Dil Dhoondta Hai’ from a 1975 film, Mausam! Javed Akhtar, who made his debut as a lyricist with Yash Chopra’s Silsila in 1981, worked again with the director over two decades later with this film. The selected unheard tunes were recorded, some 50 years after they had been composed! This had never happened before and Billboard magazine wrote about its significance. Only Yashji and Adi knew what they needed. There was no place for nostalgia and emotions here. Adi was a man of today and needed commercially acceptable songs. His son, Aditya Chopra was scripting the new film.

He seemed excited at the idea and very surprised that I had never mentioned this before. Instinctively, I blurted that I had some old world melodies on tape, now not heard for 28 years. He adds, “In 2003, one day Yashji told me that after 6 years he had decided to direct another film, but a film that needed old world music that was away from the western influences that had crept into the scene today. The tapes remained safely kept away, though, over the years, they were suffering damage and with technological developments, they would soon be obsolete.” A lot of music still to be created, a lot of tunes yet to be shared with the world, a lot yet to be achieved! He was widely acknowledged as a great composer but big banners, films with big stars and popular awards always eluded him, and in fact this hurt him deeply. When my father, the late composer Madan Mohan, passed away in 1975, he was only 51 years old. Sanjeev Kohli recounts in the book Veer Zaara, The Memoirs of a Love Legend, “ Veer Zaara for me was the realization of a dream that I could never believe would ever come true.

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