Lyricist-filmmaker Amit Khanna says singer-composer Bappi Lahiri got his big break in Hindi cinema with 1976 movie ‘Chalte Chalte’ after celebrated composers RD Burman and Laxmikant-Pyarelal had to back out due to their busy schedules. Directed by Sunder Dar, the film remains popular to date for Lahiri’s composition for the titular track “Chalte Chalte Mere Ye Geet”, which was sung by Kishore Kumar with lyrics by Khanna.
Khanna recalls meeting Lahiri a week before the two teamed up for ‘Chalte Chalte’ in Mumbai at Navketan Films, a production house started by actor-filmmaker Dev Anand and his elder brother Chetan Anand, where the latter had come to meet few people.
“I told him that you play some music and I will see where I can promote you. I liked the young boy, he was hardly 21-22 then and had come with his parents. He kept meeting me.
“Around the same time Dev Anand’s nephew Bhisham Kohli (known as Vishal Anand), also an actor, was going to produce his first film,” Khanna told PTI.
Kohli, who was also known as an actor by his screen name Vishal Anand, had featured in the movie opposite Simi Garewal.
Khanna said he had suggested Lahiri’s name after Burman and Laxmikant-Pyarelal couldn’t devote time to Kohli’s film.
“One day, Bhisham said he came from Pancham Da’s (RD Burman) house and that he had promised him to do his film and now he keeps delaying it because he is so busy. Earlier, the same thing happened with Laxmikant-Pyarelal that they were so busy, they said yes to the film and now they don’t have time,” Khanna said.
“I told him I met this young boy from Kolkata, he is talented and asked me to call him. He (Lahiri) was staying with his parents in a small apartment then. He came and played some tunes and we liked it,” he added.
The title track ‘Chalte Chalte’ – picturised on Kohli and Garewal, was a flashback song between the lead characters, reminiscing about their past romance.
Khanna said after Lahiri played the melody, he wrote the lyrics within minutes.
“Almost 90 percent of the songs are created like that, the melody is played and we write the lines. I wrote the lines the same evening and we went to Bhisham’s place and worked on the final structure of the song and he (Lahiri) liked it.
“It was his and Bhisham’s idea to have a sad version (of the same song). Within a week we recorded it,” Khanna said.
Asked about the popularity of the song “Chalte Chalte”, Khanna said some songs have the quality to touch people’s lives.
“When you compose and write songs you want every song to be a hit. But some songs do really well, touch everyone, and be remembered forever. When we recorded this song, I remember Kishore da had said this is the best song he sang in years. He was very happy with the song. He would always sing it constantly,” he said.
The film and songs of “Chalte Chalte” had given a huge boost to Lahiri’s career, who later went on to score music for Rajesh Khanna’s “Naya Kadam”, Rakesh Roshan-starrer “Aangan Ki Kali”, Mithun Chakraborty’s “Disco Dancer”, “Namak Halaal”, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra’s “Himmatwala”, among many others.
