Filmmaker Farah Khan has revealed that several people in the film industry questioned her decision to work with Shreya Ghoshal on the soundtrack of ‘Main Hoon Na’, as the singer was still a newcomer at the time.
According to Hindustan Times, during a recent vlog filmed at Shreya’s Mumbai residence, the two revisited their long association, which began with the 2004 Shah Rukh Khan-starrer. Farah recalled that Shreya was only 18 and her songs from ‘Devdas’ had not yet been released.
Despite the doubts, Farah and composer Anu Malik believed in the young singer’s talent and decided to work with her.
“So many people called me and asked why I was taking this new girl, that I was making a big mistake! But I said that I wanted a fresh voice,” Farah said during their conversation.
Shreya also recalled worrying about whether she had done justice to the songs after seeing Sushmita Sen on screen. Farah praised her performance, particularly the title track and a brief portion associated with Amrita Rao, which helped convince the filmmaker to give her another song featuring Sen.
Shreya recorded two tracks for ‘Main Hoon Na’: the title song and ‘Tumhe Jo Maine Dekha’. Both were composed by Anu Malik, with lyrics by Javed Akhtar.
Shreya had already made a remarkable debut with ‘Devdas’, winning the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for ‘Bairi Piya’. She went on to become one of Bollywood’s leading playback singers over the following two decades.
