There were three things that ruled the 80s and the 90s. Romantic love stories, soulful songs and Alka Yagnik's voice.
The melodious singer has given us some of the best unforgettable gems in Bollywood. Songs like Hum Tum, Agar Tum Saath Ho, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, Gali Mein Aaj Chand Nikla are have not only attained a cult status still manage to give us goosebumps. While we may think that with a voice like that things would have always been smooth for Yagnik, this old interview will shatter all our beliefs.
Alka Yagnik had accused legendary singer Anuradha Paudwal of dubbing her songs without her knowledge. In Filmfare issue of 1997, Alka Yagnik lashed out at Paudwal. The report begins by stating how Anuradha Paudwal dubbed Alka Yagnik's songs – Dil Ki Kalam Se, Ye Ishq Bada Bedardi Hai and O Ramji from Itihaas.
Reacting to it, Filmfare quotes Alka Yagnik saying, "How dare she! Honestly, why does Anuradha keep doing this to me time and again? When she dubbed my songs in Dil, she had a readymade excuse, saying that her voice suited Madhuri Dixit more than my voice did. Now, what's her excuse? Is she going to say her voice also suits Twinkle Khanna?"
Yagnik further said, "At times I feel there are no ethics in the industry. She (Anuradha Paudwal) is back to singing for films and those songs will be out in the market soon. So why step all over me and do it surreptitiously when I wasn't in town?"
Alka Yagnik also revealed that she had also been approached by producers to dub Anuradha's songs which they didn't like but she refused point-blank. She added that she told them to get it re-dubbed by Paudwal herself.
The magazine claims that it tried reaching Anuradha Paudwal for three days to know her side of the story but to no avail. It then reached out to the producer-director of Itihaas who said that the music rights of the film were earlier with Amitabh Bachchan's company.
However, owing to the bad financial state ABCL couldn't promote the music. It was then that the music was taken to Gulshan Kumar who soon promoted it. However, he also made sure that it was his singers who dubbed the song, at least one from the lot.
Reacting to the fact that Alka Yagnik could have taken them to court, the singer had replied, "All I can say is that she has stooped too low. I am flabbergasted."
Well, we just hope that decades down the line, things are not sour between the two anymore.
