Maniesh Paul’s rendezvous with legendary music composer Pyarelal
Actor Maniesh Paul recently had a fan moment of sorts when he had Pyarelal, of the legendary music composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal, over to his house for lunch! It’s a known fact that the actor-host, popularly called the sultan of stage, is filmy to the hilt.
And the excitement is palpable in his voice as he says, “We all have heard their songs, and I’d always perform on them in school; it was a given that I’ll sing one of their songs. When I had come to Mumbai for the first time, I remember I was shown his house in Bandra and I was awestruck — from that day to a day when Pyarelalji himself called up and said lunch karne aa raha hoon!”
The friendship between them started on the sets of a reality show that Maniesh was hosting back in the day. “He and his wife (Sunila) are very humble people. We connected over music, my Dilli ki stories… he’s a good friend of even my parents now,” adds Maniesh, who was recently seen in a short film, Black Briefcase.
What did the two chat about? “[We talked about] how music was made during the earlier times, and how it has changed over a period of time. Pehle, music would be made in one take. He told me stories about Kishore Kumarji, RD Burmanji. How he (Burman) was so funny. It was surprising to know that Laxmikant-Pyarelalji had given the name Anthony Gonsalves for Amitabh Bachchan’s character in Amar Akbar Anthony (1977). I knew about it a bit, but he told that originally the name was going to be Anthony Fernandes. Getting my trivia certified by the man himself was so amazing,” says the 38year old.
On the professional front, Maniesh is currently gearing up to host his own game show and the latest season of a science-based show.