Guests at actress Poonam Dhillon’s late-night birthday party the other day, in mid-town Mumbai were apparently expecting some heated verbal exchange when the controversial ‘Dum Maro Dum’ producer Ramesh Sippy abruptly bumped into legendary songstress Asha Bhosle as she was leaving the venue at around midnight.
Incidentally, Dhillon calls madame Bhosle ‘Aai’ (Mother) and hence the latter religiously waited till the cake-cutting ritual was over. Currently, a controversy has been raging over the “remixed” version of the iconic yesteryear hippie anthem ‘Dum Maro Dum’ in the film ‘Dum Maro Dum (which released last week to ‘mixed’ responses) with news reports insisting that Asha ( who has sung the original number ) is “highly peeved” with the revamped Pritam version of the iconic ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ trance-dance song. Both Sippy and Asha had an animated discussion.
When asked whether the singer vented out her ire, Ramesh chuckled. “On the contrary when I asked her—kya aap humse naaraz hai—she reacted with ‘bulao uss aadmi ko, jisne kahaa hai main aapse naaraaz hoon’ (‘Call the person who says I am angry with you guys’ ) and she was amicably smiling.
Actually, I have been knowing Asha-ji and have worked with her over the past four decades. She specifically told me she had no issues at all regarding our version which goes ‘Mit Jaaye Gham’ song. And then our version is definitely not trying to be ‘one-up’, on the yesteryear chartbuster composed by R D Burman, but its just a ‘re-invented’ gen-next salutation to the original song. It goes without saying, that I have the highest regards and adulation for both Dev Anand-saab and the late genius R.D.Burman.
As RDB die-hard fans are aware, as a director, most of my milestone movies including the iconic Sholay and Seeta Aur Geeta have its music scored by Panchamda,” elaborates Sippy. But wasn’t the seasoned film-maker planning to meet actor-director Dev Anand ( the creative brain behind the 1972 cult movie ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ ) on a ‘personal’ level and ensure a ‘happy ending’ to the off-screen misunderstanding ?
“Certainly, its always been on my agenda. Unfortunately, as they say, a lot of stormy waters have already flown before I could meet Devsaab. Now that our movie ‘Dum Maro Dum’ is finally released, I am waiting for that ‘calm’ so that the timing is right," he signs off.