EXCLUSIVE: Mehboob talks about writing Adnan Sami’s ‘Ishq Tamasha’; reveals ASTONISHING trivia – “‘Tadap Tadap Ke’ was not made for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam; was originally created for Dilip Kumar’s Sufi qawwal in Mukul Anand’s Dus”
Lyricist Mehboob has carved a distinct niche for himself, having penned some of the finest songs of the 1990s and 2000s for films such as Rangeela (1995), Bombay (1995), Daud (1997), Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), Thakshak (1999) and Yuva (2004), among others. In the mid-2000s, he suffered from multiple slipped discs, as a result of which lyric writing took a backseat. He made a comeback with Heropanti 2 (2022) and, more recently, penned Adnan Sami’s much-loved single, ‘Ishq Tamasha’. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, Mehboob spoke about ‘Ishq Tamasha’ and shared fascinating anecdotes and trivia as he went down memory lane.
‘Ishq Tamasha’ was recently released and has been quite loved. How has the feedback been?
The response has been very heartwarming. Whenever you write something, you obviously hope that people will connect with it, and it feels wonderful when they do. I have always believed that emotions don’t really change with time. Love, heartbreak, longing – these feelings remain the same. ‘Ishq Tamasha’ comes from that emotional space, so seeing people connect with the words and the song has made me very happy.
How did you get associated with the song and how was it working with Adnan Sami?
Adnan and I have known each other and worked together earlier as well. He had sung ‘Baadal’ in Yuva (2004), which I had written, and we had also worked together on ‘Aaja Aaja’ from Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke (2001). So, this wasn’t our first association, but we were coming together after a long time. When Adnan got this tune, we started working on it and during that process, the phrase ‘Ishq Tamasha’ came about. We liked the thought and decided to build the song around it. The idea was that when outside voices, circumstances or misunderstandings enter a relationship, love itself can become a tamasha. Working with Adnan again after so many years felt very natural.
It’s a pleasure to have you back and I believe you were away due to health reasons. How are you doing now and did you miss songwriting during your sabbatical?
I am doing much better now, Alhamdulillah, and I am happy to be writing again. Of course, I missed writing. Writing has been such an important part of my life that you cannot really separate yourself from it completely. Even when you aren’t sitting down to write a song, you are observing life, feeling things and collecting experiences somewhere within you. What surprised me when I returned was that creatively, I didn’t feel that I had changed. The emotions are still the same – romance, sadness, pathos, melancholy. You still have a tune, a situation and an emotion, and you try to find the right words for them.
A film whose music is timeless is Rangeela (1995), one of your earliest films. Most lyricists in our industry are from the North, but you are an exception as you were born in Mumbai. Do you think this factor also played a part in writing lyrics of Rangeela, especially the lines sung by a tapori character like Aamir Khan?
Absolutely, growing up in Mumbai gives you an ear for the city. You hear the language spoken on the streets – its rhythm, humour, slang and attitude. Munna (Aamir Khan) wasn’t somebody who could suddenly start speaking very polished, literary Hindi in a song. His words had to sound like they belonged to the same person you had just seen speaking on screen. For me, lyrics have to belong to the character and the situation. So, with Rangeela, particularly Munna’s songs, the challenge was to retain that Mumbai flavour while still making the words musical. If the audience felt that Munna was speaking even when he was singing, then I think the writing did its job.
I saw the making video of the song ‘Kya Karein Ya Na Karein’ and realized that the lyrics were different initially. What led to the change of lyrics?
The lyrics did go through a change before we arrived at the final version that everyone knows today. Initially, the first antara I wrote was a bit poetic. After the recording, Ramu ji (Ram Gopal Varma) and I felt that it was not suitable for Munna’s character. He wouldn’t use such poetic and literary language and hence, I changed it to what you hear today.
Your songs in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) are also legendary. Interestingly, I read in an interview that ‘Tadap Tadap Ke’ was finalized for another film which eventually got shelved. Which film was it, who was making it and who starred in it?
Yes, ‘Tadap Tadap Ke’ existed even before Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Ismail Darbar and I used to create songs and keep them in our song bank, and this was one of them. It had actually been finalised for a film titled Dus. It was supposed to be directed by the late Mukul Anand ji, but unfortunately Mukul ji passed away and the film was shelved. In that film, Dilip Kumar Sahab was playing the character of a Sufi qawwal. So, we had actually made the song for him. Later, it became the first song Sanjay Leela Bhansali heard from us. He loved it, and eventually that very song became one of the reasons we got Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Sometimes a song has its own destiny.
The post EXCLUSIVE: Mehboob talks about writing Adnan Sami’s ‘Ishq Tamasha’; reveals ASTONISHING trivia – “‘Tadap Tadap Ke’ was not made for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam; was originally created for Dilip Kumar’s Sufi qawwal in Mukul Anand’s Dus” appeared first on Bollywood Hungama.