Sanjeev Singh Kohli (born 30 November 1971) is a Scottish Asian comedian, writer and actor. He is most famous for his role as Navid in the sitcom Still Game and as Ramesh Majhu in the radio sitcom Fags, Mags and Bags. He also played Norrie in BBC Four's Bob Servant Independent.
About his father's career: At times I wonder if his principles and his self-esteem became bottlenecks in his commercial success. Since he would not compromise with his melody, maybe he would choose to discontinue working with some filmmakers and this led to him losing out on some banners. In his last few years, while he did have a few good films, including Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Bawarchi (1972), Gulzar's Koshish (1972) and Mausam (1975), Chetan Anand's Hanste Zakhm (1973), and Harnam Singh Rawail's Laila Majnu (1979), he even found it difficult to get recording dates in studios. The young guard had arrived in the late 1960s and was dominant in the early 1970s. The number of films these composers were doing was many, and hence the few recording studios available were booked by them for months consecutively. The Famous Tardeo Studios, Film Center, and the Mehboob Studios, where most of his gems were recorded, now had no dates to give him. This delayed his recordings and films and added to his bitterness, which remained in him till his sad and untimely demise.
2
About his father: "He did 104 films in his 25-year career, of which maybe 10 were box-office successes. The others are remembered only for their music. He never won a major award, but two films released after his demise - Mausam (1975) and Laila Majnu (1979) - became runaway hits. Suddenly, his name became the most revered among composers - and is still held in great esteem. None of his films would be listed in the top 100 of Indian cinema, but at least 10 of the 100 most-remembered film songs would be his."
3
On some days when I missed my father, I would listen to his songs on master spools - which we were never allowed to touch as children - and also cleared his 'music cupboards' and found some spool tapes and cassettes of some amazing compositions. Some he played on the harmonium or piano; some he just hummed or used dummy words; some went back to 1958 and were never used for want of an appropriate film.
4
About recreating his father's music for Veer-Zaara (2004): "It was unbelievable. Such a big film's score with the biggest producer and director of India and with the biggest star cast assembled in recent years - on my slender shoulders. It was daunting, but I kept on, employing his trademark sitar and string arrangements as much as the screenplay permitted. But I had to remember that this was not a tribute to Madan Mohan but the soundtrack of a film traversing 22 years over two diverse cultures. It was a filial duty, and through this entire endeavor I have rediscovered my father - as well as some of what I inherited from him - and I know I didn't let him down: I saw his name up there on billboards at the Empire in Leicester Square and at the Loews on Broadway. What more could a son ask for?"
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Fact
1
He served as the General Manager of leading music company HMV (the Indian branch), specializing in A&R and Marketing, from 1984-2000.
2
On 28 February 2007, he had represented the Indian Film industry at the "Forum for International Business 2007" in Schiffsbau, Zurich.
3
In 1995, he started the Metavision television company with Yash Chopra, which produced successful music-based shows for television channels as well as music videos and albums for music companies.
4
He produced the first digital recording in India, which was a musical album by the ghazal couple Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh.
$200,000
