Sanjeev Kohli: From Veer Zaara to Tere Bagair
Sanjeev Kohli
So when Nelson D’Souza- the Dubai- head of Yashraj Films informed me that Sanjeev would be available for a telephonic interview, I immediately told him that I would do it! Call it a doctor’s curse- (at least I have termed it so!), exactly at the scheduled time for the interview, my clinic was full of impatient patients! So I had to call him for rescheduling the time and thankfully he obliged without any airs.
When the actual interview started, the initial barriers were immediately broken when he came to know that I had written the write-up on Lata- Madan Mohan chemistry in Vishwas Nerurkar’s anthology on the great composer. “So you already know everything”- he quipped before filling me in with details about his new musical project- ‘Tere Bagair’. Jovial, chatty and full of story-telling knack, Sanjeev Kohli was quite a delight to talk to. I hardly had to ask him any questions because he didn’t need any coaxing to come up with detailed answers. It was a welcome change from some of the snooty showbiz interviewees who believe in ‘Yes’, ‘No’ and ‘Don’t know’ kind of MCQ-styled answers!
Here are the excerpts of this exclusive interview:
What kind of album is ‘Tere Bagair’?
Let me start by giving you a little background of this album. In 1975, my father (Madan Mohan) passed way. I was just an eighteen year-old boy then. After his death, the atmosphere in our house was depressing. In that mental state, I started playing my father’s songs on our tape-recorder.
This spool tape- recorder- an Akai- was a rarity in those days. My father used to record his songs on those spools and then he would proudly play them for his friends. So attached was he to this tape-recorder that he never even allowed us to touch it. Only after his death, I could lay my hands on that. Then for the first time, I played his tapes on that tape-recorder. While listening to them, I realized that there were many fully recorded songs that I had never heard before. These songs were sung by singers like Lata, Rafi, Asha, Talat and Kishore. When I asked his secretary, I was told that these songs was from Madanji’s shelved film projects.
Those tapes also contained some extended versions of famous classics like ‘Lag Jaa Gale’, which were not released anywhere. Also present there were many unused tunes in his own voice, which he had either just hummed aloud or sung with some dummy lyrics. This discovery excited me a lot but I could not do anything about it then.
In 1977, I went to Kolkata IIM and did my MBA. In 1980, I got an opportunity to join Polydor while on a break from a job in Union Carbide. It was a great opportunity to combine my love for music and my business administration training. I proposed Polydor to release some of those recorded Madan Mohan compositions. Since they did not have any old recordings, they were quite happy to do that. So they released an LP called ‘Madan Mohan- a treasure revealed.’
Lata’s ‘Khile Kamal Ki Kaaya’ was from that album.
You’re right. That album had 10 songs in total. But the LP has a limited time-duration and to fit in the songs, I had to edit some of the songs. These songs and that LP unfortunately could not reach the general public as Polydor’s reach was limited. Then I joined HMV in 1984-85 and I bought back the song-rights from Polydor.
Now the new album- ‘Tere Bagair’ (released by Yashraj Music) will present all the ten songs from ‘Treasure Unrevealed’ in full, extended versions and it will also have five more tracks originally recorded by Madan Mohan. This album will be a treat not only for the fans of Madan Mohan but also for the fans of singers like Lata, Asha, Rafi and Kishore because they will get an opportunity to experience many original Madan Mohan recordings in their favourite singer’s voice. Moreover these songs were previously either unreleased or inaccessible. Even those listeners who had already heard ‘Treasure revealed’ would find many new things in ‘Tere Bagair’. The recording quality of the album is excellent since the master tapes have been used to reproduce the songs. In some songs, I have re-recorded the tabla tracks and added some harp sounds but even that is done in such a way that it would perfectly fit in the sound of the 60s, when those songs were originally recorded.
You can’t compare ‘Tere Bagair’ to ‘Veer Zaara’ because ‘ Tere Bagair’ is an album of out and out Madan Mohan originals whereas in ‘Veer Zaara’, his tunes were modified to suit the times and also the film’s requirements.
Tell us something about your experience of working on the music of Veer- Zaara.
As I told you earlier, as a young boy I had heard many unused Madan Mohan- tunes in his own voice on the spool- tapes. For many years, those tapes lay untouched, locked in the cupboard. Then one day, while traveling in a car, Yashji (Yash Chopra) and I were discussing his new film’s music. He told me that he was unable to find the right kind of music to suit his film’s requirements. He said that the modern-day composers were not able to give him what he wanted. There was a long flashback in the story depicting a period before twenty-five years and he wanted that period-feel in the music, which he was not getting.
Suddenly I remembered those tapes in the cupboard. I told him that Madanji had composed many unused original tunes, which could prove useful. Yashji was really excited. He told me to take a leave and to carefully go through those compositions. Thus began my search for Veer- Zaara songs.
I had to start from the scratch as the tape-recorder had broken down and needed a repair. The tapes too needed splicing and rejoining at times. When that was done I found that there were some two hundred such tunes on those tapes. I randomly selected twenty-five tunes from them. When I first played them for Yashji, he told me that he wasn’t able to gauge their suitability because the sound was too muffled. He told me to get them re-recorded with dummy lyrics. So hiring three musicians and two singers, I recorded these tunes as songs with dummy lyrics. I wrote those lyrics. I composed the preludes and interludes. When I took these songs to Yashji, he was really excited. In fact, I have never seen him so excited. Almost immediately he selected eight tunes for Veer Zaara. The first tune was the alternative version of ‘Dil Dhoondhata Hai’ (from Mausam) and that became ‘Tere Liye’ in Veer Zaara.
I myself wonder how such a thing could ever happen. In the film, there are so many different situations – a lodi song, a patriotic song and so on. But almost providentially Madanji had kept a tune for each situation! Then one day, I came into the office and saw Yashji listening to a Nusrat Fateh Ali qawaali. When I asked him why, he told me that he now wanted a qawwali for the film. I said, ‘Give me two days. Let me go through the tunes again. We will get our qawwali.” He was unsure but within next two days, I was able to ferret out two qawwali compositions that seemed to be done for Madanji’s ‘Laila Majnu’. So pleased was Yashji that we ended up combining both tunes into a single eight minute-long qawwali!
My father had died a bitter man because he never could get commercial success. He got plenty of critical acclaim and people’s love but not the awards and the box-office glory. He hardly ever got any big banner films with big stars. As a teenager, while listening to my father’s unused tunes after his death, I had sometimes fantasized that he should have got an opportunity to compose for a big banner film featuring stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini. For these top stars, he had composed music but those films (Parwana and Sharafat Chhod Dii Maine) were flops. Now decades later, my fantasy came true. I was able to get his music associated with the country’s biggest banner and with a film that not only featured Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini but also, Shahrukh Khan!
Veer- Zaara music went on to become one of the biggest albums of the decade. Even youngsters liked its songs. But not everyone was happy with it. Some of the veteran composers commented that there was no need to promote Madan Mohan in this fashion and if Yash Chopra wanted old music, they could have done a better job! Some people called to say that it did not have a song like ‘Lag Jaa Gale’. But then the tunes were selected according to Yashji’s story-line and concepts.
Some felt that Lataji’s voice was too old for the songs. But Madanji’s tunes were always composed with Lataji’s voice in mind and there was no question of having any other singer to render those songs. Even if she is old, she could still sing it better than others!
When I walked up the stage to receive Madanji’s IIFA award (People’s choice) for Veer- Zaara score, I was overwhelmed with emotions. I felt proud that I had managed to revive my father’s legacy in some way. Otherwise there are so many influential personalities in this showbiz who are either children or relatives of late great composers. But have they done anything to resurrect their family’s musical legacy? Maybe they don’t feel the need to do so but I do feel that it is my family duty!
For the last thirty years I have been quite busy in a hectic career. But now I have decided to lessen my work- load. Few months back, I resigned as a CEO of Yashraj and would now be working with them just as a consultant. Now I want to focus on things that I wanted to do but could not do earlier, which includes projects like ‘Tere Bagair’.
In HMV (Saregama), you helped unearth quite a few yesteryear soundtracks and songs, which were not readily available for music lovers.
In the 1980s, the standard of new film music soundtracks was declining and that had resulted in the drop of album-sales. When I was in Polydor I tried to counter that by introducing new ghazal singing talents like Anup Jalota and Pankaj Udhas. Then I came to HMV and there again, to counter the declining standards and sales, I decided to tap into the riches of old Hindi film music. In the early era, HMV did not have the capacity to press records of all the songs that were released in the year. So if 600 songs were made in a year, they could make 78 rpm records for only about 400 songs. That’s why quite a few good songs from minor soundtracks were never released on records. I started contacting the film-makers directly and acquired rights of those songs. We transferred the songs directly from the film- negatives. We released so many rare songs of Sajjad, Ghulam Mohd. and many other forgotten artistes.
In those days, I was happy to notice that Lata – Madan Mohan songs were the highest selling old numbers. In my compilations of Lataji’s songs, earlier I used to select hardly onr or two Madan Mohan songs because I did not want people to say that I was just promoting my father’s music. But then the company executives admonished and asked me why I was not selecting more Madan Mohan- songs in Lataji’s albums!
I have one serious complaint against the ‘Legends’ series of music compilations. I feel that by adding reverb, the digitized songs on these CDs lost their rich depth of original vocals and acoustic orchestration. They sound hollow!
You are right in your observation. But the reverb effect was added to nullify the hiss and scratchy sounds of old records. That does muffle the sound a bit but the general public seemed to have liked the sound! Perhaps the connoisseurs might feel differently about it.
So it was Janata Janardan Ki Jai Ho!
(Laughs) You could say that!
Tags: Exclusive, Interview, Madan Mohan, Music, Sanjeev Kohli, Tere Bagair, Veer Zaara, Yashraj
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Wow! I’m really pleased to read this Dr.Saab.The reason being my natural curiosity in knowing more about Sanjeev Kohli.I had no idea of him till Veer Zaara’s production was started and initially I only knew him to be Madanji’s son.It was later on that I knew that he had played a great innings in the Indian music and entertainment sectors with Saregama ( earlier called HMV) and YRFI hope in his new avatar he goes on to render more and more service to Indian music and entertainment.
wow! it was a rare insight
dat was awesome ‘daaksaab’… wut sanjeev kohli is doing is really very commendable. hats off to the son. the interview did manage to capture the real emotions of the man, the son and the professional. thanks a lot. aapki bhi jai ho!
Thanks guys! Indeed it was great talking to Kohli. The man is doing everything possible to keep alive his father’s memory. Wish some more Bollywood sons take their father’s artistic works that seriously!
BTW, the audio cd of veer-zaara sits proudly among the other originals cds of srk movies in my library. i loved yash uncle’s commentary especially his rendidtion in the song ‘ye hawa’ before sonu nigam takes over… bliss.
Very insightful interview. It is very sad that MM died a bitter man. One of my favorite MM songs is Lata’s Preetam meri duniya mein from Ada (1951). I still can’t find the film though. :-(
While most of the tunes used in Veer Zaara were unused tunes, the main tume of the Lodi song had already been used by Madan Mohan in Heer Ranjha. It would be good to know from Sanjeev Kohli about the reason for this. Was it at Yash Chopra’s insistence?
I personally think that the reason why many of Madan Mohan’s compositions are more popular after his death than during his lifetime has a lot to do with Sanjeev Kohli being in an influential position at HMV. Thank God for that! How I wish other greats of yesteryears also had their sons in such places
Dr. Saab,
Thanks for the interview and the post.. Tere Bagair is releasing on June 25th and we are anxiously waiting for this exciting release, specially with 5 unheard unearthed melodies of the Maestro.. Even the other 10 already released tracks are rare gems and deserve a re release for wider reach with some exceptional compostional like Phir wohi shaam (Asha – Phir Wohi Shaam), Aaj mujhe jal jaane bhi do (Kishore – Rehnuma), Mere Ashqon ka ghan na kar (Lata – Rehnuma), Kaise kategi zindagi tere bagair (Rafi – Jahan Tum Wahan Hum)
Looking forward to it.. Thanks again for the post..
@Aditya (7),
“I personally think that the reason why many of Madan Mohan’s compositions are more popular after his death than during his lifetime has a lot to do with Sanjeev Kohli being in an influential position at HMV. ”
We had a long discussion a few years back on this.. whether Sanjeev Kohli was partial to his father during his stint with HMV.. Had to dig in few facts to find out if its true…
–
Sanjeev Kohli has given us some of the best HMV compilations. I think he never promoted his father’s music when he was with HMV… He started with Polydor in late 70’s and moved to HMV later and he is the brain behind many great compilations like Legends series, Many of Kishore, Lata, Rafi, Mukesh compilations(Fun songs, Sentimental favourites, Ghazals from fils, Classical songs from films), Shraddhanjali, Ghazal ka safar, Rare Gems series for many artists, 50 Glorious Years series, Ram Ratan Dhan Paayo (Polydor), Sajda and many many more…with one signification Madan Mohan compilation by Sanjeev Kohli a 4 cst pack of Lata sings for MM
The debate moved on
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“> Well, to speak objectively, it is true that Madan Mohan owes much of his *fame* to Sanjeev Kohli.”
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Really? Did Madan Mohan received Films and National awards due to Sanjeev Kohli..
Guys please correct your facts.. Sanjeev Kohli started his career only in late 70’s (I think after death his father).. I remember, I just heard “Jiya le gayo” once about 20 years back and fallen in love with his music.. MM music never required any promotions… It speaks of itself…
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“> As far as Kohli’s crusade to market his father is concerned, it is but natural. Sanjeev Kohli, apparently, must be trying to remedy this by now
making his father famous by promoting MM’s music using his own influential position at HMV.”
>>In addition to MM, I wud have been very happy if Sanjeev had promoted Anilda, Roshan and CR.”
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I am not sure he ever marketed his father’s music (and neglected other MD’s)..
those who are quoting need to provide FACTS…
Here are some of the FACTS from my side
1. Rare Melodies of Lata Mangeshkar – A twin cst pack (where Sanjeev had the best opportunity to market his father’s tunes and see what he compiled)
C1
a1. Ek Dil ka lagana – Anokha Pyar – Anil Biswas
a2. Kahan tak hum uthaye gham – Aarzoo – Anil biswas
a3. Chali ja chali ja – Hum log – Roshan
a4. Aankho aankho mein usne – Ada – Madan Mohan
a5. Ille belle aare – Kali ghata – Shankar Jaikishan
a6. Ho gayi re teri – Sazaa – SDB
a7. Wo raat din – Saiyyan – Sajjad hussain
a8. Baaje bansuri – Sheesham – Roshan
a9. Dil matwala – Bewafa – A. R. Qureshi
b1. Is dil ki haalat kya kahiye – Anhonee – Roshan
b2. Tum chand ke saath – Ashiana – Madan Mohan
b3. Do din ki zindagi mein – Poonam – Shankar jaikishan
b4. Aaja ri aa nindia too aa – Do bigha Zameen – Salil
b5. Kaare badra too na ja – Shikast – SJ
b6. Mohabbat ki daastaan – Mayur Pankh – SJ
b7. Piya main to baawri – Shart – Hemant Kumar
b8. Dil se milake dil – Taxi Driver – SDB
C2
a1. Ab aage teri marzi – Devdaas – SDB
a2. Nain khoye khoye – Munimji – SDB
a3. Tum sang preet – New Delhi – SJ
a4. Kisi ke thukra ke armaan – Pocketmaar – Madan Mohan
a5. Tera jalwa jisne dekha – Ujala – SJ
a6. Bakkad bam bam – Kathputli – SJ
a7. Mere man ka baawara panchhi – Amardeep – C Ramchandra
b1. Ye bansi kyon gaaye – Parakh – Salil
b2. Sona na sitaron ka – Opera House – Chitragupt
b3. Ab aur na kuchh bhi yaad – Prem Patra – Salil
b4. Husn ki baharein liye – Benazir – SDB
b5. O sajna mere ghar aana – Saanjh aur Savera – SJ
b6. Bairi bichhua bada dukh – Chitragupt
b7. Bahut din hue – Sant Gyaneshwar – LP
Just 3 MM songs out of 31… with SJ, SDB, Salil, Roshan getting more songs
Another Example
Rare Gems – Romantic Duets
A fantastic twin cassette pack with no Madan Mohan song out of 28 selected by Sanjeev Kohli
Chitragupt got 7 , SJ 3, 2 each to Dattaram, KA and Ravi, and one each to Sardar Malik, Iqbal Qureshi, , Robin Banerjee, LP, Shivram, Bipin, Ajit Merchant, Babul, Bulo C Rani, N Dutta, Hemant Kumar and SDB
Many Moods Lata (4 cst pack) features hits of Lata has just one MM song out of 53 songs with most of songs by LP, SJ, RDB, KA
Have many many such examples like the Talat Mehmood collection or Sentimental Favourites from Films.. (with Madan mohan featuring in not more
than 5% of songs)
I would request you guys to please correct your Facts… and provide some data where you can prove your point that Sanjeev Kohli was partial in marketing the music…
BTW take another look at this.. The music companies specially HMV exploited his relationship with Madan Mohan and Lata…
“She was close to my mother as well. She called her bhabhi and they were confidantes. I lost my father in ‘75, when I was 16.
Lataji became closer to my mother after my father died and when I lost my mother in ‘80, she became closer to us — the children. This normally
doesn’t happen. Especially in this industry. You generally tend to lose contact with people in such situations. Unless it is a work-based relationship. ”
I had a wonderful experience when I joined the music industry. In my own personal capacity. I was too young to imbibe from my father since he died
when I was really young. I couldn’t go into the creative field of music at that time though the urge was there, but the confidence wasn’t. I did an MBA, so I thought that the best one could do was manage music.
In ‘79, I joined Polydor, which was the second major music company those days. And I had complete carte blanche to develop non-film music there. I
was given the task of finding new talent in non-film music.
Also in ‘75-76, some of the legendary names passed away. My father, then S D Burman, Vasant Desai and Mukesh. Also, there was a lot of disco music coming in, not to mention the action films being made, which changed the genre of music.
Music started taking a backseat and Hindi film music stopped selling, except for a few songs.You really can’t remember any hit songs from that time which sustained beyond the film. Therefore, it was an uphill task to keep the romance in the songs.
So I decided to develop ghazals as a form of music. Jagjit Singh helped me with that. I went to Lataji those days, but had lost contact with her
because I had gone to Calcutta for my MBA. Also, when my father passed away, I wondered if I could fall back on some good relationships, which would also be a part of my career. I decided against it because I wanted to make it on my own. So I never went to any of the artistes that I knew when my parents were alive.
Lataji was a contracted artiste with HMV which meant she couldn’t sing for other music companies, even for non-film music. So she couldn’t record for us then. Polydor was going to distribute Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi.
It didn’t have any songs, but Polydor felt that an album would help. So, we thought, ‘why not come out with an album of Gandhi’s favourite bhajans? This was not a part of the film at all, but we thought we could release it to coincide with the film. Naturally, Polydor was keen that Lataji sang for this since she was known for her devotional repertoire.
I went to her for the first time then. Not because I wanted her to do an album for me, but there was an occasion. We held the screening of the film
for her, because she didn’t know much about the film. She was inspired by it and made two albums with us. One was Gandhi Bhajans and one was Ram Ratan Dhan Paayo which became the highest-selling album then.
I was very shy, very nervous. Because she was too much of a legend. But now it is not so because of my professional relationship too. After that I
recorded two live concerts, one of which was a memorable one with her and Kishore Kumar.
After that, I did a lot of albums with her. We did a bhajan album with her and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, and then I did another one called Sajda with her
and Jagjit Singh. And I did one of the highest-selling albums in history called Shraddhanjali. Where she paid tribute to great singers like Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, K L Saigal and so on.
We started getting close this way again and now we are closer. She was always fond of the Madan Mohan family, but now maybe it has gone beyond that. Now, it extends to my wife and son as well.”
I believe any music company would love to hire such a marketing manager (with roots in trade and relationships with the masters, who wont exploit
it?)
(This was 2003 around the time of VZ)
Thanks Doctor saheb for this interview with Sanjiv Kohli, the man who resurrected the long forgotten tunes of his Father and got it released in the form of Veer Zara. HOpe he will do justice to the remaining 200 unused tracks of his father. But after listening to the music of Veer Zara, i think he has a good sense for music and being a son of legendry Madan Mohan , he has the ability to make new music himself. Hope this time he will embark on his own musical career. All the Best!
Pavan: The facts you quote are absolutely correct. I did not imply that Sanjeev Kohli was ‘partial’to his father. There is a difference between saying he popularized only his father’s work (at the expense of others) and that he had an important role to play in popularizing his father’s work. My point was that had he not been involved with HMV, would we have seen collections like Lata sings for MM or Legends on MM? If I remember correctly, SDB, RDB and MM are the only composers to get a “legends” collection. I believe that one legends compilation would popularize a composer much more than 100 odd compositions spread over 50 compilations.
Sanjeev is doing a great job in keeping the name of his dad alive.
I wish him the best of this world. His Father didn’t get his due during his lifetime and I’m glad that Sanjeev keeps his name alive. May God bless Sanjeev and his Father [Madan Mohan ji]