O.P. Nayyar, one of the greatest names ever to anoint Hindi film music, would have been a 100 years old on January 16. On his centenary, here’s presenting some really interesting lesser-known trivia about the maestro, whose songs have often been major re-creation fodder.

O.P. Nayyar 100th Birth Anniversary: From trying to become an actor to earning Rs. 1000 for his debut assignment, here are some lesser-known trivia about the iconic composer

  • P. Nayyar was by nature a rebel, and the only offspring among six siblings (one sister) who was headstrong from the beginning. Nayyar was very good at playing the harmonium, and would often do so on the terrace of their Lahore home, and music lovers from around his home would collectively come and listen to him.
  • His mother enrolled him in a music class, but the young lad left because the teacher, said to be the best in Lahore, scolded him for something! Nayyar quit, stating that a teacher was “supposed to teach music, not berate his students!”
  • Nayyar told me that he was once thrashed by his father for spending his examination fee of Rs. 180 on whisky in an upmarket restaurant frequented by British ladies! “Romance was in my nature itself!” he smiled.
  • At the young age of 12, he got to sing two Punjabi songs, Master Inayat Hussain’s ‘Dil vich yaar di shakal basaake’ and Master Dhaniram’s ‘Kaudi kaudi haar ke’ on All India Radio, Lahore, which gave him the confidence to set foot in Mumbai in 1948.
  • His granddaughter, actress Niharica Raizada, reveals, however, that he came to Mumbai to become an actor, not a composer. But when he was told he did not have what it takes, he went back to music! Legend has it that Mukerji instead gave him a Raja Mehdi Ali Khan poem to tune but was not impressed and told him that he did not have what it took to score music either!
  • Nayyar actually earned living teaching the harmonium to children during his struggle, whether in Patiala, where he stayed for a while, or in Mumbai!
  • His first professional film assignment was the background score for Kaneez (1949), for which he was paid a princely sum of Rs. 1000. How did a musically-untrained musician achieve this? “I told you that I was God-gifted!” thundered Nayyar to me in explanation. “What more does one need? Sufi poetry was never taught, doctors have been there before medical colleges existed! Did Christ and Buddha get their wisdom from going to a class?”
  • Guru Dutt’s co-production, Baaz, also flopped like Nayyar’s first two films, Aasmaan and Chham Chhama Chham. Nayyar wanted to return to Amritsar to teach music, as he was already married and had children. He went to Guru Dutt to ask him for his balance dues, which he did not have! When a financier, K.K. Kapoor, offered to finance Dutt’s next film and distribute it if Nayyar is signed, Dutt gives the composer Rs 1000 as signing amount for Aar Paar.
  • When his three later films with Guru Dutt, Aar Paar, Mr & Mrs 55 and CID became blockbusters, Nayyar bought a house and also a yellow Chevrolet. He drove down to his father’s home in Amritsar and the once-strict father proudly showed off both his son and the latter’s car, as per Niharica.
  • While the reason why he never recorded with Lata Mangeshkar has never been clarified, Niharica states that Lata was upset that he had called her to sing for a secondary artiste. And OP declared, “I will get better voices!” Years later, Lata said that she admired Nayyar and his work.
  • The Madhya Pradesh government would give a Lata Mangeshkar award annually in the 1980s. But Nayyar angrily rejected it, stating, “Music composers make singers, not the other way round!”
  • He brooked no nonsense, and removed Sahir Ludhianvi at the lyricist’s peak from six films because the latter had pompously claimed that his lyrics for S.D. Burman’s Pyaasa had made its music so popular. “I wondered what he would say after my Naya Daur His ouster landed him in hospital with high blood pressure, and I never worked with him again!” said the composer.
  • Recalling their association, Shammi Kapoor once revealed to me that ‘Maang ke saath tumhara’ from Naya Daur was a song composed by Naushad that Nayyar improvised. “But no one recalls the original! I remember he gave me eight tunes for Kashmir Ki Kali within four hours!” recalled the actor.
  • In his peak phase from 1954 to 1972, 1961 was the only year when Nayyar had no release—the proverbial lull before the storm that was to come with Ek Musafir Ek Hasina, Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon, Kashmir Ki Kali, Mere Sanam, Kismat, Humsaya and more. The maestro was reinventing himself to mould with the advent of color and a lighter brand of cinema, apart from a completely new generation of leading stars like Biswajeet, Joy Mukerji, Sharmila Tagore and Asha Parekh.
  • When I asked Nayyar how most of his hit scores and songs were with small-time songwriters like S.H. Bihari, Shevan Rizvi, Aziz Kashmiri, Noor Dewasi, Farukh Kaiser, Jan Nissar Akhtar and Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, his cryptic explanation was “I worship the sunset!”
  • Nayyar even did a Telugu film, Neerajanam (1992), and private albums with Penaz Masani, Ashok Khosla and Runa Laila, all in the 1990s, but he did better, incredibly, as a practicing homeopath for over a decade!
  • In short, the maestro was always the epitome of confidence! The story goes that when he was a teenager on a train to Mumbai, unable to afford buying any food, a good Samaritan shared his lunch with him. Afterwards, the boy asked his benefactor for pen and paper, and boldly scrawled the words ‘Omkar Prasad Nayyar’ on the sheet and handed it over. “Is that your name?” asked the stranger. “Yes!” said the boy. “I will not forget what you did for me. I am soon going to very famous. If you ever have any problem, come to me!”
  • He once thundered to me, “My learned colleagues who are running down today’s music and Western influences forget that there are only seven notes in this world and they have all emanated from God! Swar to Bhagwan hai! My dear friend, music cannot be spoilt! Why don’t they, as intelligent men, know that? Why don’t they say instead that the lyrics, costumes and choreography have deteriorated? And what will they lose if they praise and encourage a newcomer?”
  • For the record, apart from innumerable other musical memorabilia, Nayyar’s landmark albums remain Aar Paar, C.I.D., Ek Baar Mooskura Do, Ek Musafir Ek Haseena, Humsaya, Kashmir Ki Kali, Kismat, Mere Sanam, Mr & Mrs 55, Naya Daur, Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon and Tumsa Nahin Dekha.
  • An example of Nayyar’s iconic standing even now lies in the fact that hotshot director David Dhawan called Niharica to his office just to shake hands with a girl who was from O.P. Nayyar’s family!

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