Sukhwinder misses ceremony, happy for ARR

Mumbai, Feb 23 (IANS) He was to have performed with music maestro A.R. Rahman at the 81st Annual Academy Awards but could not due to some snag. But "Jai ho" singer Sukhwinder Singh is extremely happy at Rahman's twin wins at the Oscars.

Reports earlier said that both Sukhwinder and Rahman were to perform the "Slumdog Millionaire" song live at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles. However, it was only Rahman who finally took centrestage.

Sukhwinder told a national daily that he couldn't go as his papers were not processed in time for him to catch the flight to Los Angeles.

But he said he is delighted for Rahman and that he always wanted an international honour for the ace composer, who brought him to the limelight with the "Chhaiyan Chhaiyan" number in "Dil Se".

"One thing that I was missing since seven-eight years was an international award for Rahman, because I knew he truly deserved it. But today it has happened and I'm very happy about it," Sukhwinder told reporters here.

Rahman became the first Indian to bag two Oscars, including one for best original score and the other for best original song ("Jai ho"), which he also shared with lyricist Gulzar.

Sukhwinder says he was confident that "Jai ho" would go places.

"I knew 'Jai ho' will definitely go places because it's a song full of fun," said Sukhwinder.

The versatile singer with a rustic voice said that he enjoyed the song so much that while he was recording it with Rahman, he insisted on singing it multiple times.

"When we were sitting in the studio and recording, I sang the song once, but told Rahman that I'm not convinced and sang it again."

"Then I sang it for the third time on the same pretext. Suddenly, Gulzar stopped me. He told me that the song is full of naughtiness and I am naughty too. He was right! I was really enjoying the song and that's why I wanted to sing it again and again," he added.

So did he expect the song to win an Oscar?

"When Rahman and I work, we only concentrate on the poetry and nothing else," said the singer, adding that he had completed the recording of the song in half an hour.

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