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Writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar made headlines a few years ago, when he reminded a gathering of Pakistanis in Lahore that Indians cannot ignore the nationalities of the perpetrators of various terror attacks over the years. He said that he was in Mumbai during the 26/11 attacks, and that he watched his city burn. He also reminded the crowd that while India has rolled out the red carpet for Pakistani artists such as the singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Pakistan hasn’t extended the same courtesy to Indian singers. He said that Lata Mangeshkar was by far the most popular celebrity in Pakistan, but she was never invited to perform there. His comments were praised by Indians, but the incident hasn’t diminished his admiration for Nusrat.
In a recent interview, he recalled an anecdote about meeting Nusrat at an event in Delhi, and what transpired there. Appearing on AajTak Radio, he said, “I’m not a big fan of qawwali, but I was a huge admirer of Nusrat. He was a lovely man. We worked on an album together, called Sangam. I wrote it, he composed it. It was released at a big five-star hotel in New Delhi. A delegation from the Pakistan high commission was seated in the front row. Nusrat was asked to say a few words, and he said, ‘I travel all over the world, but the reception I get in India is unmatched. I hang my head in shame when people ask me why my country hasn’t hosted Lata Mangeshkar. I’m saying this here because I want the people from the Pakistan high commission to pay attention’.”
Javed said that it takes ‘conviction’ and ‘daring’ and ‘honesty’ to make such statements. “For me to say this isn’t a big deal; I’m an Indian. But for a Pakistani to say this to his own people, and then return to Pakistan, it was an extremely courageous statement to make,” he said. Javed reiterated that he has nothing but love and admiration for Nusrat. “I went for his condolence meet as well, after he died. And he died so young. He happened to be in London while on his way to America, and he died there. He was going to America to sign a record deal with none other than Madonna. Who knows what greatness he would have accomplished had he lived longer.”
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was born in 1948. He died at the age of 48 in the year 1997. Javed pointed out that he was one of the first South Asian artistes who could sell out shows overseas, not among the diaspora, but among the local population. Shortly after the Pahalgam terror attack earlier this year, Javed Akhtar repeated his sentiment about cross-border exchange of art. “It has been a one way traffic, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Noor Jahan came to India, we gave them a great reception. Faiz Ahmad Faiz, who is a poet of subcontinent, he was living in Pakistan, when he came to India during the AB Vajpayee regime, he was treated like a state head, the kind of respect given by the government,” he told news agency PTI.
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