When Vishal Bhardwaj helped Bashir Badr after his house was torched in riots

PrashantNews

Top lyricist Javed Akhtar has revealed that he used to spend time during his days of struggle in Mumbai with Sahir Ludhianvi, who was known for his soulful poems, songs and shayari

Composer Vishal Bhardwaj has also shared a similar anecdote about his days of struggle in Meerut where he used to meet ace Urdu poet Bashir Badr.

Speaking at a literature festival in Dehradun on Saturday evening, Bhardwaj recollected a sad incident in Meerut where the house of Bashir Badr was torched in riots. A precious diary of Badr was also burnt in the fire, Bhardwaj said.

After the riots, Badr went into depression. But Bhardwaj said since he remembered 90 percent of the shers that Badr wrote in the diary, he helped the shayar in rewriting all those shers which were lost in the fire. “This really helped Badr saab in rewriting all those shers of the diary which was burnt in the fire,” Bhardwaj said.

Sharing yet another anecdote, Bhardwaj also revealed that NFDC never wanted to retain “Chaddi” word in the iconic title song of DD TV serial Jungle Book “jungle Jungle Baat Chali hai…” which was written by Gulzar and composed by him. NFDC bosses suggested that instead of Chaddi something like lungi or patloon can be inserted.

But it was Gulzar who kept his feet down saying either use the song as it as is or don’t take it. Since the time was very less with DD, the song was taken without any cut. Bhardwaj also revealed that the iconic song has to be written in one day since it was to be aired in two days time.