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Anu Malik’s first hit song, Kitaabein Bauhaut Si for the film Baazigar (1993), was originally sung by Pankaj Udhas, and the composer maintains that it will always be his first choice. The song was later recorded with Vinod Rathod’s voice for the Shah Rukh Khan starrer. Chhupana Bhi Nahi Aata also suffered the same fate. Also read: Anu Malik on 30 years of Baazigar
‘For him to give me a compliment was huge’
“I had chosen Pankaj ji for Kitaabein. I asked him ‘sir aap gaaoge?’, and he very sweetly agreed, first he wanted to hear the composition. When I played it, he loved it and said, ‘The lyrics are by Zafar Gorakhpuri, how come you turned a ghazal into a commercial song?’ I was surprised by the compliment. He gave me a hug and said I’m going places. For him to give me a compliment was huge, so I was a star with his ghazals. She was a star even when he died,” recalls 63-year-old Anu Malik.
‘He enjoyed life, he made a beautiful house’
Calling Udhas ‘soft-spoken like the late Mohammed Rafi sahab’, Malik adds that he was open to singing any kind of song: “I think he was the only ghazal singer who never threw a tantrum ki yeh gaana gaaun ki nahi, many “They say He won’t sing songs if they don’t fit his format. Pankaj ji could sing any song well. He enjoyed life, he made a beautiful house. I am distraught like everyone. 72 is too young an age to leave.”