Legendary Shahenshah-e-Qawwali Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was remembered on his 73rd birthday anniversary.
Admirers and stars paid glowing tributes for his lifetime contribution to the entertainment industry. Comedian Yasir Hussain posted a throwback video of Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn as he was seen recounting a story NFAK’S dedication
“Nusrat Sahab jaisa artist sadiyon mai paida hota hai [An artist like Nusrat Sahab is born once in decades].”, the Karachi Se Lahore star.
In the aforementioned video, the Singham star narrated the story of the time the qawwal recorded his final album for Devgn’s film Kachche Dhaage.
“Sahab’s last album was Kachche Dhaage, which was my film, I remember, Nusrat Sahab had travelled from Pakistan and was staying at a hotel. He was there for a month to make music. At the time, he weighed a lot.”
“So, he would ask [lyricist] Anand Bakshi Sahab to come to him since he couldn’t travel by car. Bakshi Sahab felt he was doing this because he had a very big ego. He would ask, ‘Why isn’t he coming here?’”
“He’d write a song and send it over, and Nusrat Sahab would reject it because he didn’t get the right feel from it. Nusrat Sahab would send a tune and Bakshi Sahab would reject it. This went on for 15 to 20 days, after which Nusrat Sahab had had enough and said, ‘Pick me up and take me to him.’ Bakshi Sahab lived on the first floor, and Nusrat Sahab had seven to eight people carry him upstairs.”
“When Bakshi Sahab saw this, he cried with tears. He apologised, saying that he was the one who had the ego issue. He went back to the hotel with him and wrote the entire album there.”, he concluded.
The popular qawwal was an icon and he sang in Punjabi, Urdu, Persian, Hindi and other languages during his lifetime and also performed in more than 40 countries.
