Alka Yagnik is undoubtedly one of the most popular and successful playback singers from the 90s. She has worked with the most prominent male singers and gave hit solo songs during her four decades-long career in Bollywood. In addition, she sang for 1000+ films, recording over 22 thousand songs. Alka holds a world record for getting 15.3 billion YouTube views in 2022, becoming the most streamed singer. The playback singer hasn't limited her work to the Indian subcontinent and went ahead to work on international projects. Despite this roaring success, Alka has significant regrets about her career, and she shared these details in a recent interview.
A.R. Rahman is one of India's most successful music composers and singers. He has achieved widespread success in the country and abroad. His first film-scoring project was Mani Ratnam's Tamil film, Roja. The massive success of his soundtrack for the film established his career, and he never looked back. But, before the release of Roja, A.R. Rahman was a budding artist, and several Bollywood singers refused to work with him. They didn't know who he was and used to collaborate with other music composers. One of them is Alka Yagnik.
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In a new interview with Radio Nasha, Alka Yagnik revealed that A.R. Rahman approached her to sing songs for the film, but she underestimated him. She said no one knew about him in the Hindi film industry, and he was young. So, when she got a call that he was her fan who wanted her and Kumar Sanu to sing all the songs in the then-upcoming film, Roja, she refused. She was quoted as saying:
"AR Rahman was a new name at that time. Nobody, especially in Bombay, knew him. Down south, he was well known. He was a very young boy then. I got a call from Chennai saying that there is a new composer called AR Rahman. He is your fan. He is composing songs for a film and he wants you and Kumar Sanu to sing the entire soundtrack."
Alka added that A.R. Rahman wanted her to go immediately for recording, and she was already booked. Moreover, she had a good bond with composers in Mumbai and didn't know about his potential. So, she said no. In her words:
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"But the problem was that he wanted me to come immediately. But, my dates were booked for a long time. Plus, the fact that I had worked with the composers in Bombay so much and had built a rapport that I didn't want to ditch them. Moreover, I didn't know who AR Rahman was. I didn't know his caliber."
In the same interview, Alka shared that she had a conversation with Kumar Sanu, who A.R. Rahman also approached. But he didn't even want to ditch the music composers from Mumbai, and A.R Rahman was new. However, when Roja's songs were released, they became massive hits. When She heard them, Alka felt like banging her head on the wall as she lost the opportunity to sing the beautiful songs. She said:
"I said to them, 'Sorry, I cannot come.' So like that I lost the opportunity. Later, when I heard the songs, I wanted to bang my head on the wall. They were beautiful songs."
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Alka Yagnik recalled another incident when she collaborated with A.R. Rahman on another project. The latter recalled that she refused to work with him, which left Alka embarrassed and she felt like burying herself inside the land for making a significant loss. However, they went on to work on many projects, including Taal. She mentioned that the national award-winning music composer is a person of few words and always has a smile on his face, which gives him a divine look. Overall, she has felt calm and soothing to work with him.
What do you think about Alka's revelations?
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