‘I got a lot of love from Pakistan but…’ – Firstpost

Adnan Sami, the popular Pakistani singer and music composer became an Indian citizen in 2016. He has been facing severe criticism from Pakistani citizens for his decision to move to India. While many speculated that the reason behind this shift is financial motives, Sami recently set the record straight and revealed the real reason.

“I come from a very privileged family. I was never greedy for money because I was born in a home where I always had everything. An artiste is always wishing for audience. I got a lot of love from Pakistan, but I wanted a larger audience. After the songs I released in 1998, people in the Pakistani music industry thought my songs wouldn’t work and I’m finished. So they didn’t provide any publicity for those songs. Nobody got to know when the album released and vanished. I was very dejected. I was in Canada at that time. I knew they’d done that on purpose,” Sami said during a recent appearance on India TV’s Aap Ki Adalat.

Recalling his conversation with Asha Bhosle, he said, “I told her that I felt dejected again, and people have decided in Pakistan not to work with me. So I want to record song with you in London. She said, Why in London? If you really want to do something new, come to Mumbai because this is the capital of Hindi Music, and something that gets popular here will spread across the world. So I reached there. Asha ji took a lot of care of me and made me stay at RD Burman’s house. It was like staying in a temple of music. The songs that were rejected in Pakistan, Lift Karade, Bheegi Bheegi Raaton Mein, when these songs were released here, the rest is history.”

Adnan shared that the kind of love and success he found in India was unlike anything he experienced before. He also cited examples of Pakistani artists like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mehdi Hassan and Reshma, who garnered popularity in their country but their fame witnessed new heights in India.