Alka Yagnik recalls refusing to work with AR Rahman on Roja: ‘I wanted to bang my head on the wall…’

The singer added, “I then called up Sanu ji. I told him, ‘Sanu ji, I received a phone call from Chennai.’ He was like, ‘Yes, even I did. I won’t sing for them. I have already given dates to others, how can I ditch them? God knows who this composer is. I have never heard the name AR Rahman or his songs. I won’t be going to Chennai. Even I was like when I have committed dates to others, I can’t drop them. So, 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 then recalled her first collaboration with AR Rahman. She said, “The next time when I worked with Rahman, the moment he met me, he was like, ‘You didn’t sing my older songs.’ I felt so embarrassed. I wanted to bury myself inside the land. It was entirely my loss.”

In another interview, Yagnik recalled collaborating with Rahman for Taal. Sharing her experience working with Rahman, the playback singer said, “I was called around 9 something in the evening, till 12 midnight there was no sign of either AR Rahman or anybody.”

“A little after 2 am he came, absolutely fresh as if he had just woken up and both of us (Alka and Subhash) were like this (enacts getting tired). He is man of few words, he always has this smile on his face. I always saw something divine about his face. Every time he looked at me, I felt calm and nice. The vibes he gave were very calm and soothing,” added the singer, who sang three songs in the film, “Kariye Naa”, “Ramta Jogi” and “Taal Se Taal”.