Kishore wanted to sing in English, asked me to pen lyrics: Pritish Nandy

Singing legend Kishore Kumar was extremely keen to lend his voice to English songs and perform those tracks in overseas concerts, author and former senior journalist Pritish Nandy said.

Nandy also said Kumar wanted him to pen lyrics for English songs to fuel his desire "to go global".

"He wanted to sing in English for some strange reason… sing English songs in overseas concerts, and wanted me to write the lyrics. But, I was convinced it wouldn't work because his compositions were extremely Indian, and back in those days, there was no independent music of that kind," the former Parliamentarian said at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet.

"May be it was my mistake, may be he would have done something phenomenal (if Kumar sang in English)," he said.

Nandy was speaking at a session on the iconic singer, which was also attended by Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Parthiv Dhar, the authors of 'Kishore Kumar – The Ultimate Biography'.

Recalling his interactions with Kumar, Nandy said he was an "unusual man", who had limited interests, seldom went out of his house and did not believe in the idea of friendship.

"Kumar did not smoke or drink and hated people who smoked or drank. He was highly competitive and so he hated his peers, too. I would say he hated most things in life and that was his magic. The man's dislikes defined him," the noted journalist said.

Sharing another anecdote about the maestro, Nandy said he loved the trees in his garden and had peculiar names for each one of them.

"He would have long and sustained conversations with his trees and would even sing to them… Kumar lived by his own rules; we all want to do so, but aren't often brave enough to do so," the Padma Shri awardee said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)