Alka Yagnik reveals first experience of working with AR Rahman: ‘I and Subhash Ghai waited till 2 am, braved mosquitoes’ 

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“I was called around 9 something in the evening, till 12 midnight there was no sign of either AR Rahman or anybody,” Alka said. Further recalling vividly she said that Subhash and she were passing their time by sitting on swings and being bitten by mosquitoes.

She said, “Then raat ka 1 baja, 2 baja and I said, ‘Subhash ji ab to meri awaaz bhi kaam nahi karegi. (My voice will also not work). What is this’. He said ‘it’s ok. Hang in there.'” Finally Rahman arrived a little after 2 am.

“A little after 2am 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.” said the singer, who sang three songs in the film “Kariye Naa”, “Ramta Jogi” and “Taal Se Taal”.

Decoding Rahman’s work ethos, she said that he likes to assemble the song. “Suppose I sang twice or thrice, 3-4 baar he would make me sing and then he would ask me to do the antra. He gets his little bits of alaaps, music, then he sits and assembles the song and that is where the song is ultimately made. By around 4 in the morning we were through with it,” she said.

Ever since Alka has been accustomed to Rahman’s style of working and enjoys it too. “By the time the song was done, I felt that this time was the best time to sing a song because there were no disturbances. There were no phone calls, no people walking in. It was quiet. Just AR Rahman was there, Subhash ji was there and I was there and I really felt very nice and very satisfied,” she said.

The singer added, “After that I knew that whenever I was called by AR Rahman, I would have to work during the night, but I really enjoyed it after that. I realised why he wants to work when it’s night and it’s quiet and you are disconnected with everyone else,” she said.