Her 'Darrling' number in Saat Khoon Maaf recently created waves in the music scene. And going by the fact that veteran singer Usha Uthup still gets innundated with requests to sing the song at live concerts, only proves its popularity. Uthup had been late master composer RD Burman’s first choice, when he needed that extra-zing for his westernised songs then. And the songs she crooned to, like 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna', 'Ramba Ho', 'Hari Om Hari', among others, have remained all-time favourites.
But ask her what her secret formula for a hit-maker is, and the singer says there actually is none. “There just has to be a good hook line and it instantly connects. My songs like 'Ramba ho' and 'Darrling' connected with the audience because of that very reason. It also depends on how different your song is from the rest at that point of time,” says Uthup, who recently performed at Jashn Ki Raat, a concert that celebrated Ekjute’s 30 years of theatre. The event hosted by Anup Soni, Juhi Babbar Soni and Arya Babbar, was a fundraiser for theatre artistes.
Interestingly, Uthup had sung the original soundtrack for Dev Anand’s film Hare Rama Hare Krishna in 1971. Ask her what she thought of actress Deepika Padukone gyrating to the classic 'Dum Maaro Dum' remixed version, and she says, “I don’t care about controversies. If you look at it as a tribute, it’s great. I’m thrilled about it. If it hadn’t come out, you wouldn’t be talking be about the original score also today. It’s a way of saying that we loved the original. I sing the song in my shows all the time, but if it hadn’t released now, people wouldn’t have known how fantastic the original song was.”
On a parting note, the singer, who is now a part of a Malayalam film called Ideal Couple laughs, “Please put across the message that I’m looking to do more films!”
