Imtiaz Ali opens up on Rashid Khan’s death: We convinced sahab for Aaoge Jab Tum

The song has been the anthem for every broken heart since 2007. Aaoge Jab Tum, from the film Jab We Met, has been a favourite with listeners for 16 years now, and the director of the film, Imtiaz Ali is only grateful for the late maestro Rashid Khan singing it. The 55-year-old died on Tuesday due to cancer.
Ali connects with us and tells, “I was already his fan much before I actually worked with him. I had listened to his live recital of the megh malhar… it’s a wonderful memory. When he sang it, it actually started raining, we laughed. I am sure it didn’t happen because of his singing, but the belief is that it rains when someone sings the malhar really well. I remember he was singing in the open and people were holding umbrellas over his head. That’s the first time I met him. I feel great regard for him.”
Ali also recalls the recording of Aaoge Jab Tum, where Khan’s first statement to him was to not treat him as a big singer. “I realised he was simple minded, he said ‘don’t think of me as a very big singer, I am a newcomer and never sung in a recording, you have to guide me’ And that one song he sang is perhaps the most popular one in my repertoire. It lives on forever,” shares the 52-year-old.
That the song has a life of it’s own now, Ali attributes it to Khan, “It is largely owing to him, it is something he has acquired over years and years of practising in the gharana. It’s very inspiring, the numbers of hours that these great masters give to riyaaz. That is what brings that larger than life quality to their work. People like us in the industry, who work with music, really admire this.”
The filmmaker and the late maestro often had conversations about the song whenever they met. The last time they spoke was in 2023, when Khan invited Ali to an event marking the beginning of his son’s musical journey, “I couldn’t make it, but that was the last time we had spoken. That song was just a blessing my film got.”