Veteran actress Hema Malini remembered her co-stars Rajesh Khanna and Dev Anand after listening to the famous tracks ‘Humein Tumse Pyaar Kitna’ from the 1981 film ‘Kudrat’ and ‘Pal Bhar Ke Liye’ from the 1970 film ‘Johny Mera Naam’, sung by ‘Indian Idol 13’ contestant Chirag Kotwal.
She shared: “Chirag your moustache resembles Jeetu (Jeetendra) Ji and you have a nice voice. Bahut sundar gaya, Chirag (Chirag, you sang beautifully).”
“The first song which you performed, ‘Hume Tumse Pyaar Kitna’, took me back to the scenery of Kashmir, and the scene with Rajesh Khanna which we did in the movie. I feel sad because, such a wonderful song which was picturised with Rajesh Khanna Ji who is no more in this world today, it reminds me of those days.”
Hema is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer and she worked in a number of hit films such as ‘Johnny Mera Naam’, ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’, ‘Raja Jani’, ‘Dard’, ‘Kudrat’, ‘Andaz’, ‘Hum Dono’, ‘Prem Nagar’, ‘Jugnu’, among others. She acted opposite many superstars like Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Dev Anand, and others.
She spoke about the performance by Chirag, saying: “You sang it with such feeling that I got emotional. The second song which you performed, which was of Dev Sahab, was very nicely sung. It takes me back to memory lane and I picturise everything when you all sing. I even feel sad that Dev Sahab is not here. Thank you so much for making my day. You were lovely.”
The Top 11 contestants, who gave their performances included Navdeep Wadali from Amritsar, Rishi Singh, Bidipta Chakraborty, Anushka Patra, Debosmita Roy, Senjuti Das, Sonakshi Kar from Kolkata, Chirag Kotwal from Jammu, Vineet Singh from Lucknow, Shivam Singh, and Kavya Limaye from Gujarat.
Judged by Vishal Dadlani, Neha Kakkar, and Himesh Reshammiya, ‘Indian Idol 13’ airs on Sony Entertainment Television.