Ek Rishtaa was composed overnight!

rediff.com, Movies: Nadeem Shravan Interview: "Have you been keeping in touch with other composers' work in your absence?

Yes. But I don't think there is anything worth talking about!


None at all?

Well, just one or two scores. I liked the music of Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.



What about A R Rahman in Taal?

Rahman is at his worst now! As for Taal, I would give it 70 out of 100.

Our film Pardes would get a 100 on 100!



What went wrong with Aa Ab Laut Chalen? Sameer tells me there was a lack of mental tuning as also the fact that Rishi Kapoor and you were never quite on the same wavelength?

No, no, our tuning has always been excellent. I still consider it to be one of our finest scores. The RK flavour was there, too.

The only problem was that four of the eight songs were recorded after I left. And I wasn't there to personally supervise my singers. I could not even work from here. Both Shravan and I were disturbed about it...

On the personal front, now that you are exonerated, why don't you fight it out in India so that you are vindicated and free once and for all?

I am not foolish. I know that a select coterie of politicians and policemen are out to trap me. I will not walk into the trap.

I trust our judiciary and the police force is not corrupt as a whole. But there are vested interests out to frame me. I can name the six or seven people who want to nail me on record. But will you print their names?

If you do, will the publication print them? What kind of free press is this that everyone can damn me in print and I can't retaliate against them nor make people aware of the facts?

Look, I am an honorable man. I have fought honorably through the courts.

The British machinery has no vested interests. And if they exonerated me after over three years of minutely examining every angle and evidence, including handwriting reports, it means something.

The far-reaching judgment clearly says that the 'Evidence is so tainted so as to render a fair trial impossible'.

I could have run away from here and moved from one place to another, but I fought in the courts of London. The Indian government should realise this.




You even brought in the communal angle two years ago by stating that you were harassed because you were a Muslim. Even your partner Shravan did not like it.

Well, I spoke from the heart; I felt strongly about it. Though I never generalised and said that every Hindu was against Muslims.




It is painful, but can you rewind to the time it began? What was your first reaction?

You see, I had come down here for a holiday. My wife was undergoing some medical problems -- she was in an advanced stage of pregnancy and miscarried.

When I first heard the news that I was the prime accused, I was shocked. My first reaction was to laugh it off as a joke. But when I realised the gravity of the situation, I began to sob helplessly.

People called up; I swore on my child's grave I was innocent. How could they write a complete pack of lies?

Gulshanji was the man who made our career with Aashiqui. Bhushan Kumar was, and is, like a kid brother.




How long did it take to get out of that mood?

I did finally come out of the ordeal. Only a man of steel could have survived the trauma I went through. My family and friends refused to believe I was guilty -- they know me too well. Everyone rallied around me.

I hope Bhushan and Krishen Kumar realise and see the light, too.




But Bollywood initially did not really stand by you. It was only after some years that they came back to you...

Not true. I must mention the complete and consistent moral support of Mahesh Bhatt and Shatrughan Sinha. Indians in London believed in me, too.

Also, I was the one who cut down on my work. "