Musical chairs

And speaking of Anu Malik again,Munna Bhai MBBS was first offered by Rajkumar Hirani to Jeet-Pritam when Pritam was a part of a duo. “Raju had got us Tere Liye too,but we could not take up Munna Bhai MBBS because Jeet was ill then,” reveals Pritam.

Vishal-Shekhar and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy stepped into Om Shanti Om and Taare Zameen Par after Rahman turned down the film because he wanted royalty rights. V-S in turn had to let go Golmaal – Fun Unlimited’s sequel Golmaal Returns as they were too tied up. And Pritam became a fixture with the franchise,and with Rohit Shetty till Singham. Pritam,according to the grapevine,was even offered Joker.

Recent examples of such changes even include films that A.R.Rahman could not take up because of his international commitments at different times,like What’s Your Raashee? which went to Sohail Sen,and Kisna,Fiza and Dil Ne Jise Apna Kahaa,that saw Rahman quitting after recording one or more tracks to make way for Ismail Darbar,Anu Malik and Himesh Reshammiya respectively. Anu Malik also stepped into Mela after Rajesh Roshan’s creative differences with Dharmesh Darshan and was replaced by Sajid-Wajid when he quit Garv and Mujhse Shaadi Karogi for similar reasons.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali had wanted Anu Malik for Devdas. And Kunal Kohli had chosen Rahul Sharma for Hum Tum,but the latter music director was not keen on more film work and the movie went to Jatin-Lalit,thanks to their track-record with Aditya Chopra. Later,after the duo split,Kohli has been changing his composer by the film.

A reliable inside source has revealed that Yash Chopra had unfruitful sittings with two big-name composers then before settling for the unused songs of Madan Mohan as the music score of Veer-Zaara. Similar lack of resonance to Laxmikant-Pyarelal for Kabhi Kabhie (despite Daag) led him to Khayyam,who staged a comeback.

Even in the days gone by,such examples are legion and for obvious reasons they happened most with the topmost names at any time. When Subhash Ghai’s Ram Lakhan changed hands from producer Ashok Khanna (Usha Khanna’s brother) to Ashok Ghai,R.D.Burman was replaced amidst much media-hype by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. The former replaced L-P in Prakash Mehra’s Khalifa and Ramesh Sippy’s Shakti.

A chance sitting with Rajesh Roshan got him Kunwara Baap with Mehmood (which was planned with Mehmood’s regular R.D.Burman) and K.Shankar and Shammi Kapoor went back to Shankar-Jaikishan after L-P turned down Sacchai. Jaikishan’s death led to Seeta Aur Geeta going to R.D.Burman,while L-P got Dosti after Roshan rejected it,and Bobby after Raj Kapoor changed his mind from original choice S.D.Burman!

S.D.Burman also indignantly turned down Hare Rama Hare Krishna from Dev Anand because he wanted the senior composer to only compose the soft melodies while RD would do the ‘modern’ ones! It is also well-known that Naushad was then first choice for Basant Bahar but distributor pressure forced the producer to shift to Shankar-Jaikishan. The same was the case when Sur-Sangam went to LP over the producer’s first choice R.D.Burman. And LP and RD both lost out when Tips offered the makers of Hum Dono a choice between Anand-Milind (who finally did the film),Nadeem-Shravan and Anu Malik! On the other hand,Dev Anand,impressed by the score of Amir Garib and the renewed success it brought him after seven flops,overruled Chetan Anand’s choice of Madan Mohan in favour of L-P in Jaaneman,months before Madan Mohan stepped into L-P’s shoes when they left Laila Majnu!

So obviously there are many more reasons than those mentioned by Pritam for such changes. And it is not always the composer’s prerogative to turn down a film. Market standings are also of prime importance. But as Pritam states,the game of musical chairs will always be played even if the rules vary each time.