It is Atif Aslam's birthday today. (Photo: Shah Rukh Khan, Atif Aslam/Instagram) Pakistani singer Atif Aslam is a sensation in his own right. He has a massive fan base in the Indian subcontinent, and has consistently churned out chartbusters — peppy ones, soulful ones, romantic ballads — since the beginning of his career in 2003. He began his career with the band Jal and later broke away to forge his own path as a solo artiste.
Atif got his first breakthrough in Bollywood, thanks to Mahesh Bhatt who apparently had approached him for his consent to include one of his tracks for his production venture Zeher in 2005. The result was the slow, romantic song “Woh Lamhey.” Post the warm, resounding welcome of “Woh Lamhey” by Indian fans, Atif continued to lend his voice to many songs over the years until the India-Pakistan tension escalated in 2016.
Contemporary Bollywood sound and Atif Aslam share a symbiotic relationship almost. Both have taken something from the other and grown, in turn.
In an interview with BBC’s Haroon Rashid a while back, Atif acknowledged the same and said, “I loved that journey, because it has taught me how to be more humble, and how to be more creative and patient.” However, not everything was hunky-dory since the singer admitted there were occasions when he had to make changes to his products because the producers had issues with it — “Few songs I had to change the lyrics for. I really felt bad about it. I did not want to do that, but yes, I had to (do it). There is a difference in doing your own work, and doing it for somebody else.”
Further adding that he doesn’t regret anything that he did during his time recording music for the film industry, Atif said, “I don’t look back and regret, that oh my god, I could have sung ‘Chashni’ and all of that…I have worked the most over there (India), and I have enjoyed myself thoroughly. The love that I have gotten from there, I still have it. My heart still has it. It can never be bittersweet, because I am a firm believer in the fact that, if something is for me, it will come to me. It was not in my control not to sing for Bollywood movies. It was meant to be like this.”
Later in the interview, the beloved singer opened about one particular Bollywood association that almost happened between him and superstar Shah Rukh Khan. Apparently, Shah Rukh had claimed that he had approached Aslam to sing “Gerua” for Dilwale, but it never panned out. When asked to elaborate upon it, Atif laughed and said, “I have just come across him once in my life, and he is a wonderful person. But he never said it personally. His team got in touch with us, and we recorded the song, and we had sent back the song. I don’t know what happened, his team did not put us through. Something happened which was not conveyed to him. And the next thing I see is him saying ‘Atif Aslam was not available for my song. Maybe he was too busy singing for a Chinese film.’ If Shah Rukh Khan watches this, (I want to say) I was not busy. I would never be busy for you. I would love to sing for you, any day.”
Fingers crossed for this potential iconic collaboration.
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