Lyricist Sameer has a story about the time a rival filmmaker rang him up to complain about a song he hadn't even worked on for that director.

Speaking with Komal Nahta, Sameer recalled that after "Tum Paas Aaye, Yun Muskuraaye" from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai came out, David Dhawan called him directly. The complaint, as Sameer remembers it: "Bada ganda gaana likha hai tune, yaar. Meri picture mein aisa gaana likhna mat." Dhawan wasn't even attached to Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. He was gearing up to release Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, for which Sameer had also written the songs, and the two films landed in theatres on the same day in 1998.

Sameer says he pushed back on the spot. "Teri picture ka gaana hai? Tu kyun pareshan ho raha hai? Jaane de na," he told Dhawan. The director wasn't having it. "Meri film ke gaane bhi release hue hain. Uss film ke music ko khatam nahin kar diya toh tu mujhe bata," Dhawan shot back, worried the Karan Johar film's soundtrack would swallow his own. Neither soundtrack lost. Sameer points out both films' music went on to be hits, so the panic, in hindsight, was for nothing.

The Karan Johar years

The anecdote came up as part of a longer conversation about the banners Sameer enjoyed writing for across his career. He named Yash Chopra's production house first, crediting Aaina, Yeh Dillagi and the Dhoom trilogy, and said working there felt like being part of a family that actually understood lyrics and craft. He also wrote three films for B R Chopra, including Baghban, a film he says he can't overstate Chopra's contribution to.

On Karan Johar, Sameer did only two films, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, but rated the experience highly. He recalled Jatin-Lalit nearly walking off Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, overwhelmed by a cast spanning generations, and says he talked them into staying by telling them to simply follow Johar's lead. The knottiest track, according to Sameer, was "Say Shava Shava," built around Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji and Kajol all in one frame. He says Johar's narration was precise enough that writing around that ensemble turned out easier than expected, joking he barely noticed finishing the film's songs.

Sameer has written for cinema across four decades, and this conversation with Nahta is part of a run of such sit-downs where veteran lyricists and writers are revisiting the anecdotes that never made it into press notes at the time. Whether Dhawan has his own version of that phone call is, for now, unconfirmed.