In Seema Chishti’s article ‘Frayed icon’ (IE, July 3), she states: “But most damagingly Bachchan stood up at a function last year, and said he was keen that his son gets married soon, and produces a ‘son’ so he could become a ‘dada’”. This is an incorrect account of what actually happened at the said function.
I was invited by lyric writer Sameer Anjaan to release a book that had been brought out in his honour for the completion of a certain number of years for his contribution as a lyric writer in the Indian film industry. The books were in Hindi and English. The English version was released by Yash Chopra and I released the Hindi version. In his speech on the occasion, lyricist Sameer recollected his association with me.
He spoke of a common bond between our families, he and his father, the great lyricist Anjaan, also being from Uttar Pradesh. He then mentioned that his father Anjaan had written several songs of importance for Amitabh Bachchan. He said that he himself had written several songs for Amitabh’s son, Abhishek. And now he hoped, since he has a son, that his son should write songs for Abhishek’s son. In response to his speech, I acknowledged our long association and humorously said the following words: “Main aabhari hoon ki mujhe awsar mila ki Anjaan jaise prakhyat sangeetkaar ne mere liye gaane likhe meri kayi filmon mein. Main aabhari hoon Sameerji ka ki unhonein kayi mahatwapurna gaane mere putra Abhishek ke liye likhein hain. Aur ab main jaldi se ghar jaakar Abhishek se yeh kehna chahta hoon ki woh sheeghra ek putra paida kare taaki Sameerji ki manokamna poori ho sake”. (I am grateful that a lyricist as famous as Anjaan wrote songs for my films. I am grateful to Sameer that he wrote some very important songs for my son Abhishek’s films. Now I wish to quickly go home and tell Abhishek to produce a son so that Sameer’s desires could be fulfilled).
