Q.: What’s playing on your I-pod these days?

A.: Firstly, I really don’t know what an I-pod is. Yeah, I have heard of I-tone. That too,  I have heard of it, only recently. However, these days I’m listening to songs of “Pink Floyd -the Wall”. It’s one of the most successful movies in the world. It has a single song and it’s of four and half  hour duration. The specialty of the song is it starts at the commencement of the movie and ends when it ends. Besides I like these songs- ‘OSO’s “Tumko paya to jaise khoya hun” and ‘Saawariya’s “Jab se tere naina”.

Q.: Which kind of music do you like and which music irritates you?

A.: I like every genre of song. It may be Ghazal, Sufi or classical. As far as irritating is concerned, I hate music that lacks soul, which I think doesn’t really entertain people, even though people who create it think they do!

Q.: Amongst the music  of ‘OSO’, ‘Saawariya’, ‘Aaja Nachle’, ‘Khoya Khoya Chand’ and ‘Dus Kahaniya’, which one appealed to you the most?

A.: I like the music of ‘OSO’ most. That film is not only entertaining but it really is musical. All the songs of ‘OSO’ are soothing to  the ears.

Q.: Name five of your all time favourite songs.

A.: My first favourite can cover all the five numbers! Well, my preferences are ‘Solah baras ki baali umar ko salaam’, ‘Tere naam ka deewana tere ghar pe ayaa hai’, ‘Chura liya hai tumne jo dilko’, ‘Main shayar badnaam’ and ‘Chhaiya Chhaiya’. All these songs alleviate my heart.

Q.: Is there any song that makes you dance?

A.: I was just trying to hide what you just asked me. I love rock music very much. It’s the only kind that makes me dance. And it’s now known to all that I danced like Shahrukh while recording the song ‘Dard-e-Disco’ for ‘OSO’.

Q.: Do you like remixes or originals?

A.: Actually there was no concept called remix. There was pop before remix. It came into existence from Michael Jackson’s album. It had all old and popular songs. >From that popular it became pop. And that pop has now become remix. But if you ask me my choice I would say that I like originals more than remixes.

Q.: What’s your most favourite romantic song?

A.: I like ‘Chal chal mere sang chal’ from the film ‘Astitva’. There are lots of romantic songs but I like that the most.

Q.: When old songs are compared with recent numbers,do they come across as better, worse or equal?

A.: Actually these days we have less music directors and lyricists than what’s needed. There were more music directors and lyricists during the sixties than today. Even I’m not amongst those better music directors of present times. I think despite having that difference in number we can compare them with the best directors of the past.

-Rajnee Gupta - SAMPURN