Ramesh Taurani Recalls Early Career Incident When He Refused a Film Because Suniel Shetty Was the Lead

Ramesh Taurani and Kumar Taurani recently spoke with Komal Nahta about their journey and experiences working on film music. During the discussion, Ramesh Taurani recounted an embarrassing experience from the beginning of their career involving Suniel Shetty.

Ramesh explained that around 1990 or 1991, after he had paid Firoz Nadiadwala for the music rights of two films—one being Ram Shastra (1995)—Nadiadwala announced three more films and asked Ramesh to acquire their music rights as well. Ramesh refused, stating that the hero of the picture was Suniel Shetty, who had just arrived in the industry at the time. Ramesh noted that they were new and did not yet know how to speak properly within the industry.

Just one hour later, Ramesh received a call from Jatin Rajguru, the secretary of Suniel Shetty, saying that Shetty wanted to meet him. When Shetty arrived at their office an hour later, he told Ramesh not to say he would not take a Suniel Shetty picture. Ramesh confessed to making the remark but assured Shetty that he would buy the rights to his next two films, which turned out to be Raghuveer (1995) and Takkar (1995). Ramesh added that they were involved in the music sittings for Takkar, and its song 'Aankhon Mein Base Ho Tum' remains popular today.

Reflecting on the incident, Ramesh Taurani remarked that it was a lesson that taught them what not to say in the industry.