Asha Bhosle would have turned 93 had she been alive today, September 8. She died this year in April and left behind a lasting legacy of not only memorable music, but also a wide range of proteges, whose careers she helped launch over the years. One of them was Adnan Sami, her longtime collaborator, who in fact tried his luck in India only on Bhosle’s insistence. “I credit her for a lot in my life,” Sami tells SCREEN in an exclusive interview.

When Asha Bhosle brought Adnan Sami to India

Sami recalls he was recording his and Bhosle’s 1997 hit album “Kabhi To Nazar Milao” in London, when she asked where he plans to release the music. Since Sami was living in London at the time, he picked that city. But Bhosle disapproved of that decision and insisted he release the album in Mumbai instead, since that is the global capital of Hindi music. “If it’s a hit in Mumbai, it’ll be a hit all over. There’s no better distribution platform than Mumbai,” she said.

When Sami confessed to her, “Main wahan janta nahi hu kisi ko” (I don’t know anyone there), she gave him “the dirtiest look ever”. “Tum kya nahi jante kisi ko wahan par?” (You really don’t know anyone there), she asked, looking him straight in the eye. “When I said I don’t want to take a favour from her, she said it’s not a favour, and the album is as much hers as it’s mine. She also wanted to produce an album for me. So, I just came there thinking that. I came literally with the clothes for a month, and ended up staying for the rest of my life,” recounts Sami, smiling.

Kabhi To Nazar Milao not only became a hit in India but also globally, catapulting Sami as one of the most promising pop icons in the early 2000s. Sami went on to even compose the song “Lucky Lips” for Bhosle in Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru’s 2005 romantic film Lucky: No Time For Love. They also collaborated on the song “Aao Na” just last year. Sami, thus, is grateful to Bhosle for bringing him to India, where she even hosted him in her late husband and legendary composer RD Burman’s Mumbai home.

RD Burman’s influence on Adnan Sami’s career

Back in his childhood, when Sami was all of 10 years old, he impressed both Burman and Bhosle with his original composition at a London concert. When Burman expressed his doubt about whether Sami had actually composed the tune, the 10-year-old proved him otherwise by playing the tune on his portable keyboard. Both Burman and Bhosle bet high on Sami’s musical career at the time. However, Burman died in 1994, merely years before Sami’s music career in India flourished. The singer tells SCREEN that he regrets Burman not being around to witness his growth.

“I remember Asha ji once said to me, ‘Agar Pancham aaj hota toh tumhe dekh ke bada khush hota.’ And that’s also always in my heart because he was very encouraging to me as a child,” reveals Sami. His association with the word “Burman” dates back to when he was five years old in the 1970s, and was living in Portugal. “Whenever I used to see ‘Burman’ under Music, I’d decide I have to watch that film. The name ‘Burman’ was the hero for me! Whenever that name comes, the music and songs of that movie were gorgeous. I’d get confused why it’s SD Burman sometimes, and RD Burman the other times,” admits Sami, laughing.

It was only when he grew up that he realized while RD is the son, SD is the father, a legendary composer in his own right. From SD Burman’s seminal soundtrack in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s 1973 musical Abhimaan, Sami went on to relish RD Burman’s iconic soundtracks in Nasir Hussain’s Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973), Yash Chopra’s Deewaar (1975), Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay (1975), and Hussain’s Hum Kisise Kum Naheen (1977). After that, he got fascinated with the experimental music of Subhash Ghai’s 1980 reincarnation saga Karz by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. His father, “a great lover of music and the arts”, also introduced him to greats like Shankar-Jaikishan, Naushad, Madan Mohan, and C Ramachandran among others. “But the man who made maximum impact on me by RD Burman,” confesses Sami.

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Which is why he felt like he’d won a “lifetime achievement award” when Bhosle paid him the ultimate compliment after their maiden collaboration. “I remember after recording Kabhi To Nazar Milao in London, I was dropping Asha ji at the Heathrow airport. Right before she left for immigration counter, she told me, ‘If anyone’s understood my voice after Pancham, it’s you.'” Sami fondly misses Asha Bhosle today, as he credits her for his 30-year-plus music career. And somewhere, he feels he also has the blessing of RD Burman, with the couple reunited in the heavens, now smiling down at him together.