Anuradha Paudwal Expresses Her Grief Over Ruined Recreation of Her Old Tracks

Anuradha Paudwal who has sung several chartbuster Bollywood and devotional songs says that the modern recreation of her old tracks makes her cry.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: May 19, 2023

Anuradha Paudwal, a famous singer feels like crying listing to the remixes of her original music. The singer, whose chart-topping songs reigned the 1980s and 1990s, admits she is not a fan of the current rage in which popular retro songs are ruined in the name of contemporary recreation. In the past, she had sung several mind-swaying songs in Bollywood before transitioning to Bhajans. Some of the songs she was known for were from movies such as Beta, Aashiqui, Dil, Saajan, Sadak, and Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin.

The singer confessed that she sometimes listens to her own songs sincerely, along with bhajans when she hears remixed version of her original track. She listens to more devotional ones especially when she comes across a remix that horrifies her enough to cry, and reverts to old melodies of her own to relive the good feeling. Citing an example, Paudwal said that one of the remixes jolted her and almost made her cry, and this was the rendition of Aaj Phir Tum Pe Pyaar Aaya Hai from Dayavan.

The movie had Madhuri Dixit and Vinod Khanna in the lead, and the composer of the song was Laxmikant-Pyarelal. The singer were Pankaj Udhas and Anuradha Paudwal. The recreation of the song was Samira Koppikar and Arijit Singh as singers, with music from Arka for the movie Hate Story 2, an erotic thriller. The incident took place when a person sent the recreated version to her saying that the song was a hit. After listening to it, Paudwal had tears in her eyes and switched to hear her original track from Dayavan on YouTube multiple times. It was only then she found some peace.

The ‘Gift of Sound’ is an initiative of Paudwal by her Suryodaya Foundation. She launched it recently after completing 50 years in the music industry. The effort of the program is to restore schoolchildren from BMC schools with hearing capacities. The singer wishes to help kids experience sound, as they grew up devoid of it. She said that it is her 50^th year in music and what better gift than rendering sound to kids who do not have it?

After all, sound has helped her so much. The singer is working for a cause and social service. She is planning for pan-India screening in different government schools for children. They have already donated hearing aids in Bhubaneshwar to 250 children. They had done a screening in this region. Paudwal delivered several hits in the 90s and then switched to Bhajans. She slowed down her career in playback singing henceforth.

When asked if she will sing Bollywood songs again, she replied that yes perhaps, but only if the songs offered are of the quality that she used to earlier sing. She said that it was a complete revolution for her and a divine thing after she switched to Bhajans. The singer thanked God for blessings and said that her songs would play everywhere, and by nature, she had always been inclined to spiritualism. Thus, recording Bhajans was something she anticipated, and did not feel bad about it.

Now that people enquire why she does not sing more film songs, she has only one to say that she did sing some top-quality songs in the past and experienced great highs. So, if she comes across a new offer of that level, she may sing.