Veteran music director Uttam Singh will turn 76 tomorrow, 25th May. He started his musical journey at the age of 4 and since then he has got a fluent hand at his music, giving many hits like ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’, ‘Gadar 2’ and many others. Dil To Pagal Hai was his first ever success as a solo music director. This film, directed by Yash Chopra, released in 1997, was a superhit film and music contributed a lot to the film’s success. It was the biggest romantic musical created ever then. Uttam Singh received many awards for his contribution to the movie.
Dil To Pagal Hai consists of 10 songs mainly sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Udit Narayan. But do you know how Uttam Singh got this opportunity and the story behind Are Re Are song? At first, Uttam Singh was offered a tele-film by Yash Chopra. A music composer, Sanjeev Kohli referred to his name and as Sanjeev was Uttam Singh’s friend, he was ready to make music for the tele-film as his ultimate aim was to create music. He had a meeting with Yash Chopra and over the period of 7–8 months he created many songs. Director, producer Yash Chopra selected a few songs from it, and then he told Uttam Singh that he was doing Yash Chopra’s film and not any tele-film. Uttam Singh had a tune ready, and it was the music of ‘Are Re Are’ song from Dil To Pagal Hai.
In an interview with Lehren, he said, “I used to make Yash Ji listen to this music constantly, and he only said ‘will see’. Six months passed away but he said nothing. One day, Uday (Yash Chopra’s elder son) came, and I told him that this music would best suit this film. These music notes are in such a manner that they can be played in all ways, like in war-like situations, sad situations, heavy situations etc.” Even Uday Chopra liked the tune. And then everyone agreed on using this music. So Uttam Singh, Yash Chopra, Yash Chopra’s wife, Aditya Chopra everyone started writing lyrics but after putting lyrics into it music wasn’t giving them the feeling they wanted.
When the Dil To Pagal Hai team was about to drop the tune, they decided to call poet and lyricist Anand Bakshi. After listening to the tune, Anand Bakshi stood and went outside. His behavior made everyone confused, including Uttam Singh and Yash Chopra. He came 2-3 minutes later, and he told Yash Chopra and Gadar music director, “Aapki situation and Uttam Singh ka music sun ke lagta hai ki, ‘Are re are yeh kya hua, Maine na yeh jaana, Are re are ban jaaye na, Kahin koi afsaan.’” And within the next 10 minutes Anand Bakshi gave the remaining lyrics of the song. Uttam Singh received the Filmfare Best Music Director award for Dil To Pagal Hai.
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