While Google honoured the late singer with a doodle on the passing of her recent birth anniversary, Zoheb Hassan spoke about the singer’s lasting legacy in a recent interview.
On Nazia Hassan’s 53 birth anniversary on April 03, Google honoured the iconic singer with a doodle on their homepage, reminding us of her incredible, pioneering contributions to music, her charitable ways and a lasting influence on pop music history.
In a recent interview with Cinestaan, Nazia Hassan’s brother, Zoheb Hassan, who was her confidante as well as longtime music collaborator, spoke about the late singer and the many personal and professional stories that they shared.
Zoheb revealed how Nazia was a “private person” which didn’t change throughout the course of her public life, how she recorded ‘Aap Jaisa Koi’ in one take with some mending done to the track in a second take and how Feroz Khan was not keen to listen to the brother-sister duo and it was Zeenat Aman who convinced him to listen to Nazia’s voice at least once.
Though the interview is packed with stories, one of them is how it was Salman Khan who told Zoheb Hassan about Karan Johar’s recreation of Nazia Hassan’s ‘Disco Deewane’ for his film Student of the Year.
When asked about the usage of their songs and how they have been remixed in “Indian pop culture and in one film” and what he thought of those mixes, made then and now, Hassan stated, “To be honest, I haven’t listened to most of them. I am in London most of the time. I didn’t know about them. I heard the remake from Student Of The Year, but I never saw the film.
You won’t believe who told me about this remake. It was Mr Salman Khan. He is a dear friend. He said, ‘Tera gaana jo hai, woh usne, Karan [Johar] ne, banaya hai (Your song has been recreated by Karan Johar).’
I hadn’t heard from him in years. I asked what are you getting at. He said, ‘Bhai, Salman bol raha hoon, from Dubai.’ He asked whether they had taken my permission. He said if they hadn’t, you should sue them.
I laughed it off, telling him I don’t want to sue anybody. Our songs were all published at the time of conception, so nobody can take the publishing away from you. Biddu told me they (Karan Johar) can do it. I told Biddu if you have done it (given the rights) then I respect that.
I just did a song for Pepsi, ‘Oui Oui’ (Biddu’s composition) with Fawad Khan. I asked Biddu whether I can use it, and he was all fine. That’s the kind of relationship we share.”
Speaking about Nazia’s legacy to this world, Zoheb said, “Her legacy is her music. Her legacy would be that she was a good person in showbiz. She set an example that you can be super talented, super successful, and still be a good person. It can go hand in hand. That is the unique thing about Nazia. At the same time, she maintained her education. She was a lawyer. She was a great role model for the youth. The only thing she couldn’t crack was her life. It was very short.”
– With information from Cinestaan.com
