Akshay Upsets Bollywood directors

Akshay Kumar has been telling producers of most of his films to include international bands apart from the Indian music directors to compose music for his films.

He had convinced producer Mukesh Talreja to get rap artiste Bohemia to compose music for Chandni Chowk to China. He also insisted on including Britain’s popular bhangra band RDB to compose music in two of his forthcoming films - De Dana Dan and Kambakkht Ishq. As a result, Indian music composers like Anu Malik (Kambakkht Ishq) and Pritam (De Dana Dan) are upset with Akshay.

A source said, “There is no denying that RDB and Bohemia give good music but it is unfair to the music directors of the films if any other group is asked to compose music at the eleventh hour. Anu and Pritam’s annoyance is justified. Even Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy were miffed when Bohemia composed music for Chandni Chowk to China, but they let it pass.”

Ratan Jain, producer of De Dana Dan, said, “Akshay can give several ideas but the director has to ultimately decide whether they have to be implemented or not. It’s a good thing that Akshay takes a keen interest in all his projects. He made us listen to the song by RDB but we still haven’t decided whether we will be including it in our film.”

Sajid Nadiadwala, producer of Kambakkht Ishq, admitted that Akshay got RDB to compose music for the film. “Akshay recommended RDB. They are his friends. They had also done the music in Singh is Kinng. We wanted a song with the word ‘Mangalam’ in Kambakkht Ishq. Anu helped us with the way the song starts after which RDB completed it.”

Mukesh Talreja, co-producer of Chandni Chowk to China, too confirmed that Bohemia composed a song in his film because of Akshay. “We were introduced to Bohemia by Akshay,” said Mukesh.

Surprisingly, Anu Malik, known to dislike sharing credits in any film, said, “I have no problem with RDB having done the music Kambakkht Ishq. It’s all about team work and I am happy with the end result.”