Bollywood, Hollywood - Page 2
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'I did Ramba ho long before Rahman's Jai ho' (09 June 2009) |
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 The irrepressible Bappi Lahiri is flying to the US later this week with his two new albums My Love and Slum Stars to enter them into the Grammys.
But what’s interesting is that Bappida thinks Rahman’s Jai Ho... is inspired by his music.
Elaborates the self-crowned King of Pop, “If you remember, in 1985, my Rambha ho... was the biggest hit of that year. It broke all records and won awards. Now, there’s Jai ho ho ho… Nothing new for me. I did it 30 years ago. That ‘ho ho’ was first used by me. Likewise, long before Pritam did Hare Rama Hare Krishna in Bhool Bhulaiya, R D Burman did it in Dev Anand’s 1971 film. I still sing Ramba ho ho in my live performances. That same excitement created by Ramba ho ho is felt in Jai ho.”
Bappida also feels that the path for Rahman’s international success was set by earlier composers like RD and Bappi. “R D Burman did Panthera decades ago. I did Habiba. And my Kaliyon Ka Chaman cracked the international charts some years ago. Now in my album My Love, for the first time, I’ve introduced R&B music in India. It’s being appreciated everywhere. I’ve brought the R&B artiste Jeda from the group 50 Cents in my new album. Now, there will be other composers bringing R&B into Indian music,” explains Bappida implying that Rahman is carrying forward a tradition set by him earlier. Bappida also takes strong exception to slum kids being called Slumdogs in Danny Boyle’s film.
Says he, “In fact my next album is called Slum Stars . For this, I went to Dharavi and made the slum kids sing in the album Why call them slumdogs? India has a great future and these kids are the hope of tomorrow. They are not dogs, they are stars. They are children of a lesser God. Some NGOs had asked me to help these Dharavi kids. My son Bappa and I brought eight slum kids into the studio and made them sing. They had never seen a studio… it was a very moving experience.”
Bappi now hopes to be one-up on Slumdog Millionaire. “If the Grammy committee likes these chawl kids’ voices, their song could get a Grammy..
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