RD Burman 85th Birth Anniversary: When Rishi Kapoor Said He 'Vibed With Pancham Much Better'

rd burman 85th birth anniversary: when rishi kapoor said he 'vibed with pancham much better'

Think Khel Khel Main, Hum Kissi Se Kam Nahin, Yeh Vada Raha, Rahi Badal Gaye, Saagar….. Rishi Kapoor shared a very special rapport with Rahul Dev Burman .

Rishi once spoke to this writer about his favourite musician, "R.D. Burman was like family to me. He used to come home and I used to visit him. Ashaji (Bhosle, married to Burman) used to cook for us. Like me, he was very fond of eating and drinking.”

Rishi recalled rapport with Rahul started early. “At the start of my career RD did music in my Zehreela Insaan and Khel Khel Mein . These had evergreen songs like O Hansini and Khullam Khulla Pyar. I had become a big star after Bobby. I wanted to work with Pancham. I vibed with him much better than with Laxmikant-Pyarelal who did Bobby.”

Like many, Rishi considered RD way ahead of his times. “Picture chale na chale, RD's music was damn good. His music suited my age and image. Pancham loved watching me shoot his songs. He told all my directors, 'Chintu perform kar rahaa hai mera gaana? I want to see him do it.' I'd get nervous. On the sets of Nasir Husain's films Hum Kissi Se Kam Nahin and Zamane Ko Dikhana Hai, he'd have lunch with Nasir saab and then watch me dance. It was a great compliment. For the song Dil dena khel hai dildar ka in Zamane Ko Dikhana Hai, Pancham came on the sets twice because the choreographer Suresh Bhatt was also Pancham's buddy. He used to shout, 'Buck up, buck up'.We were all a team.”

Rishi told of this incident that happened just before RD’s death. “Pancham (RD Burman) and I were great buddies. Just before he died, this was the time when Nadeem Shravan et al. had taken over, he called me and said, 'I'm not short of cash. But I desperately need work'. I explained to him that producers came to me with pre-decided music directors. After Deewana and Bol Radha Bol I had succeeded with Nadeem Shravan and Anand Milind. These two became music directors in all my films.”

Rishi spoke of RD’s disappointment at being rejected in the 1980s. “I remember I was working with Raj Santoshi in Damini which had music by Nadeem Shravan while Santoshi's Ghatak had music by RD. I remember how unhappy RD was about this.”

Rishi had done 17 films with music by RD. “Though my first film Bobby had music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, my maximum hit songs were by Pancham. There's one thing that you must note about RD's music. All of his youthful music was for Rishi Kapoor. The other heroes like Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan were older. But for Rishi Kapoor, Pancham could really unplug the grooviest sounds. Shah Rukh, Aamir, Salman to paida nahin huey . And there were filmmakers like Raveena's dad Ravi Tandon, Ramesh Behl and Ramesh Sippy who made the kind of films where Rishi Kapoor and R.D. Burman fitted. In his prime Pancham gave all his youthful music for me. In Naya Daur (new wave) he used empty bottles to create a special effect in the song Paani ke badle peekar sharaab sung by Kishore Kumar and, believe it or not, Danny Denzongpa."