Lata Mangeshkar recorded her song alone, whoever claims they have sung with her are lying: Lalit Pandit

He said, “When you are doing a film like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, it takes a lot of time to make songs for such films. Too much rework and lots of after-production work it needs. You need a lot of planning and plotting for such films. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, all these films have taken a lot of time. We used to have elaborate sessions for DDLJ. Singers are involved for a very less time in songs. They only join the team when we are done composing a song and music, writing lyrics, all these process doesn’t need the involvement of the singers. It’s only after the song is ready when we decide who can sing this the best. Then the singer comes, sings, and leaves, and then again there’s a long process after that to have the final product for films like DDLJ.”

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Recalling how they thought of Kumar Sanu and Lata Mangeshkar, he said, “For DDLJ, the entire team together, including Aditya Chopra, zeroed down on Kumar Sanu. Talking about Lata Mangeshkar, there couldn’t be any other replacement. She was the constant in the film. But they didn’t sing it together.”

He added, “I will tell you one thing about Lata ji, she liked to record songs alone. Whoever claims that they have sung with her, it is all untrue. In fact, people who claim that they finished recording a song in just 20-30 minutes, they are lying as well. Lata ji always preferred to sing alone. For her, we made sure we didn’t take more than two assistants. She would create an entire environment before she sang. She used to talk, joke around, discuss the ongoing things in the film industry, she had to first feel comfortable, before she started to record. It has always been the same with Lata ji. Whoever has worked with her are fully aware of this process. In fact, both Yash and Aditya Chopra themselves didn’t want a lot of people when she was singing.”

Lalit also revealed that Lata Mangeshkar loved Udit Narayan, and he is mostly the only singer to have sung together with the icon. They sang the song Mehendi Laga Ke Rakhna.

“I think this is the only song she sung with her co-singer around. Everything else, she would sing alone. She is usually known for not staying around after her recording is completed, but for some reason during the making of DDLJ, she used to stay back, listen to songs sung by her co-singers for the film. Maybe it was because it was a film being made by Yash Chopra’s son Aditya. For one, to make Lata Mangeshkar sing for their film, they had to make sure that the film was of that stature. She couldn’t be asked to sing for random films. It was very important for us to create a bonding with her for her to sing for us. She would trust us that if we have come to her for a song then we must have had done our discussions and thinking around it. We have been extremely honoured as in the last one decade, Lata ji mostly sung for Jatin Lalit.”

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