Filmmaker Mohit Suri is celebrating two big milestones — his new romantic drama Saiyaara has earned over Rs 132 crore at the Indian box office in just five days, and he has also completed 20 years in the Hindi film industry. Suri started his journey as a director in 2005 with Zeher, a romantic drama starring Emraan Hashmi and Shamita Shetty.Although Zeher didn’t do well at the box office, its music became very popular. One song in particular, “Woh Lamhe Woh Baatein,” sung by Atif Aslam, became a timeless romantic hit. But at first, Suri didn’t like how the song sounded.
“I remember clearly, I had heard the programming of ‘Woh Lamhe Woh Baatein’ by a very senior music director. And I got very depressed because he’d ruined the song. And I started crying. So, Mukesh ji started laughing at me. He said, ‘Stop, you don’t have to cry and all. We’ll do something.’ I was 22-23 years old,” Suri said in a chat with music composer Mithoon for SCREEN. Mukesh Bhatt, the film’s producer, then took Suri to meet another music director. By chance, they ran into Naresh Sharma, a well-known music arranger and Bhatt’s old collaborator. Bhatt had great respect for Sharma and spoke about his past work.“He exchanged the hellos and his with Naresh ji, came back to me, and gave me a whole brief on how your father was instrumental in the music and background score of Aashiqui (1990) and Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (1991). He was the main person who arranged the music of Aashiqui,” Suri told Mithoon.Naresh Sharma then mentioned that his son, Mithoon, also did background scores. Bhatt suggested that Suri meet him.“I said hi to you, I don’t think you even looked at me. You were so into your music that you went back into it. I don’t think you cared at that time. Your dad insisted these youngsters should work together. You were 19, I guess,” Suri recalled.He added, “There was some honesty in the way you were doing it. If you looked at me properly, socialized with me — I mean I was a nobody, I hadn’t done anything — but Mukesh Bhatt, who’s known for his music, if you’d overdone that, (I wouldn’t have worked with you). But you were so spiritual about your music.”That’s how Mithoon ended up composing the final version of “Woh Lamhe Woh Baatein.
