How Gulshan Kumar turned Anuradha Paudwal into a bhajan queen: ‘He wanted me to record ten songs in a day’

In an interview with indianexpress.com, Anuradha Paudwal called Gulshan Kumar a “genius” who was “passionate” about music and recalled the time when the impossible was made possible.

“It was fun working with him because he had that spirit. I sang my first Mata Ki Bhetein for Navratri. I had gone to Delhi when Gulshan ji told me, ‘If I give you an album, can you record ten songs in a day?’ I was stunned! He wanted to record the songs and release it the same evening! I was shocked and asked him how is it even possible? He said, ‘Leave that to me. Just go to the studio around 9 am. You keep singing, the art work will be made simultaneously’, as everything was in house.”

The singer recalled how Kumar got one lakh cassettes made in a day and marvelled at how things panned out when the album was put on sale. Paudwal said she gets goosebumps when she thinks of the moment when the album was packed in sacks, which were torn by people who just wanted to buy it immediately.

“Thanks to Mata Rani, I got that speed and we recorded ten songs in a day! I didn’t believe him, because it was impossible to even think. He said Navratri was day after tomorrow, so he had to release it as soon as possible. One lakh cassettes were made, put all of them in a sack. Back then, cost of one cassette was around Rs 13. So all the vendors would come to the selling point. On that day, he was determined to make this album a hit.

“He told them this is freshly recorded album and back then, no one had heard me sing bhajans! He told them, ‘Whoever picks this cassette, I’ll give for Rs 9.’ From the truck, people started tearing the sacks to lay their hands on the cassettes! Within an hour, 90,000 cassettes were sold! They hadn’t even heard the songs.”

Anuradha Paudwal said the ten songs were actually sung by Mahendra Kapoor, that’s how they were with Gulshan, but he wanted it to be turned into female, that’s why Paudwal was brought in to sing the tracks.

“My name was popular for Hindi film songs, not bhajans! It’s a feat to sell those many cassettes in an hour. Later when I went to Vaishnodevi, pura pahad un gaano se gunj raha tha. God has been really kind to me. Musically, that’s a time I just cannot forget,” she added.