When Pancham composed a song mid-air

Genius ideas often strike at random times and this held true for Rahul Dev Burman who seemed to have a penchant for composing some evergreen classics of the Hindi film music while travelling. It was during a flight from Bombay to Delhi with the then reigning superstar Rajesh Khanna that RD composed the scintillating ‘Ye jo mohabbat hai’ song for the 1971 film ‘Kati Patang’, says a new book.

‘R D Burman - The Prince of Music’, further reveals that the airborne composition was appreciated so much by Khanna that he specially created space for the song in the film. "Once, Rajesh Khanna and RD were travelling together on a short flight to Delhi and Rajesh asked RD to hum something to soothe his frayed nerves.

RD obliged to the unconcealed delight of co-passengers! "Rajesh liked what he heard and prevailed upon producer-director friend Shakti Samanta to create a situation in ‘Kati Patang’, which was on the floors at the time, to accommodate RD's airborne melody. And that's how the song ‘Ye jo mohabbat hai’ was added to ‘Kati Patang’ and went on to become a classic," says Khagesh Dev Burman, the author.

The song struck gold with listeners and became an instant hit. Kishore Kumar even received a Filmfare Best Singer Award nomination for this airborne number but was outdone by Manna Dey with his ‘Ae Bhai zara Dekh ke chal’ from the Raj Kapoor-starrer ‘Mera Naam Joker’.