RGV blogs on what happened...... apparently, this is why Ismail has been really harsh to ARR....
DUSTBIN FORTUNES Both "Drohi" and the song bombed but because of that association my relationship with that lyric writer continued and whenever I was in Mumbai, me, the violin player and the lyric writer used to meet up once in a while and at that time I was just beginning to work on the idea of "Rangeela". When I mentioned the story to both of them, they got very excited and the violin player composed a tune for which the lyric writer wrote a song. I was very impressed with both and committed to both of them that they will be doing the music for "Rangeela". They were thrilled to bits. A few days later Maniratnam made me hear the songs of "Roja" at his home on Chennai and I was simply blown away with the orchestral brilliance of A.R.Rahman. I got too greedy and at any cost wanted to get that sound in my film and went back on my commitment to the violin player and signed Rahman instead, which understandingly left the violin player in a very angry and a heartbroken state. The lyric writer pleaded with me not to do that to his friend and I said it is just a professional decision in the best interest of the film. I spoke to Rahman about the lyric writer and told him that his first song didn't work but I do believe that he is very good. Rahman said, "If he is good enough for you he is good enough for me". Thus that lyric writer named Mehboob came into "Rangeela" minus the violin player and the first song he wrote was "Tanha Tanha". I played that song to Maniratnam and he was mighty impressed with the fact that he hasn't heard a song since a long time which didn't have the words dil, deewana and sanam and signed on Mehboob for "Bombay". With the super success of both "Bombay" and "Rangeela" Mehboob got a very big name and credibility and using that he recommended his closest friend the violin player to Sanjay Leela Bhansali who was looking for a new music director for "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam" and thus was born Ismail Darbar. After the tremendous musical success of "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam" which also timed with a couple of Rahman albums not doing well including my own "Daud" Ismail Darbar was the new musical genius on the block. I called Ismail Darbar up to congratulate him and he didn't pick up my calls. Later on Ismail gave an interview where he said that now that he is a success, everybody is calling him including Ramgopal Varma. That was obviously his revenge on the heartache I gave him by dumping him from "Rangeela". http://rgvzoomin.com/2009/10/07/dustbin-fortunes/
