News

This page will contain bits of interesting news about Salil. If you have any information about Salil that sounds interesting please let me know.

* 20/2/2003 - One of the Salil admirers recently contacted me and said that he met the producer of a film called 'Kusumkali'(1980). He also mentioned that another film called 'O baba jaan' starring Dilip Kumar was to be produced by Dilip Kumar's brother. Apparently songs for 'Kusumkali' was recorded by Asha, Bhupinder and Manna Dey and for 'O baba jaan' by Yesudas and Antara. Sabita confirmed this but said that these films were never completed. Looks like the search for the songs begin NOW.....-
Another film I was told about is called 'Ek Akeli' starring Ashok Kumar and Nimmi. The songs were recorded but I guess the film was never released. I saw several photographs about this film.

* 22/10/02 - Just returned from a whirlwind 8-day trip to Kolkata. My primary interest was to see Durga Puja after umpteen years but I did manage to collect several unreleased and unpublished Bengali songs of Salil. Seems like the more I look the more I find. To obtain these songs I travelled in and around Kolkata and for one song I had to beg Calcutta Choir to sing the song 'Eso aaj ei shubhodine kori ongikaar' for me since its impossible to get the song from any source. Only they knew the melody since they sang it with Dwijen Mukherjee a few years back. I intend to list these songs soon.....

* Strange as it may sound but Salil wrote the lyrics and composed the music of several 'jingles'. Well, in the '50s and '60s they were not called jingles, rather they were songs that were recorded to promote products and give important message. Salil composed some songs for Lipton Tea, Hamam Soap and Dulaaler Taal Michhri (Palm Sugar !) etc. He also composed a song warning villagers about Malaria and asking them to take Paludrin ! A couple of record collectors have managed to discover these old 78rpms. Seems like they are from '67-'68. Some details I have managed to get from them are :
'Ato rang roop mayaa' - Sabita for Hamaam Soap
The Hindi, Gujarati and the Marathi versions of the Hamaam Soap was sung by Geeta Dutt. In fact Geeta Dutt also sang the well-known jingle for Rexona soap - "Rexona sabun ke gandh se milaa hai".

'Chaa bono bihaarini' - song for Lipton Tea sung by Tarun Bannerjee and Supriti Ghosh and directed by Asit Sen.

* Salil composed one song 'Naach re dharti ke pyaare' in the film 'Heera-Moti'. The music Director
was Roshan.This song is based on one of Salil's very early Bengali compositions 'O aayre poushali bataashe' (see Mass songs page) and was used in his first Bengali film 'Rikshawaala'.

* Salil composed part of the background music of Bimal Roy's 'Devdas'. The music director was in fact S.D.Burman.

* In 1978 Hrishikesh Mukherjee made a film called 'Naukri' starring Rajesh Khanna and Zahira and also Raj Kapoor ! Although the MD was Rahul Deb Burman, the backgound score was composed by Salil. It's actually acknowledged in the credits but not mentioned in Hamraz's Hindi Film Kosh. I have since learnt that the story is also by Salil.

* I have been told that Salil composed the background music only of 'Anokhi Raat' (around 1959) directed by Asit Sen. The music Director was Roshan.

* Besides composing all the songs and the orchestration in a film, Salil also composed the background score. In fact he was so good at composing the background music that he composed only the background music for around 20 Hindi,Bengali and Malayalam films (see the page backgroundonly). Other music directors used him as well for that. See item#2 above.
There are, however, two exceptions. Salil did not compose the background music of the Bengali Film Raat Bhore and his last Hindi Film Swami Vivekananda.

* Salil wrote the lyrics of about 10 Beatles songs in Bengali and recorded them. Antara,Sabita and Sanchari sang the songs. I have heard the songs and I must say that Salil was absolutely faithful to the original sheet music. He did mention that he found their compositions very interesting. I do remember mentioning to him once that he should think twice before releasing these songs. In the end he didn't.