Abhijeet shared that Bappi da had a ‘naughtiness like that of a child’. He said, “I had a wholesome relationship with Bappi da. At times we would joke with each other to such an extent that we would forget Bappi da is our senior. He had a naughtiness like that of a child. At times, we even had our differences, but that was only about music. But after that either I would be having a Chinese feast at his place or he would be singing at my place on Durga Puja. He always complimented me. He would tell me that even Kishore da said, ‘Ye naya ladka Abhijeet sur mein gaata hai.'”
He further added, “There was a time I would sit in his studio waiting during my struggling days. He would have multiple recordings at different places in a day. I remember, once during the recording of a song from ‘Shola Aur Shabnam’, I had a song with Anand Brij before that, I even had to dub for Nadeem Shravan… I wrapped up those and reached for dubbing with Bappi Da at 12 in the night. Even Pahlaj Nihalani was there and he was upset. Dada said to me, ‘Abhijeet, now you will come this late at 12 in the night?’ I said, ‘Dada you are forgetting, I used to wait for you downstairs and have learnt so much from you. When you were busy, you would come late; today I am busy so I am late. But don’t worry. It’s your song, which is why I’ve come for dubbing even at 12 in the night. If it was someone else, I wouldn’t have. ‘Shola Aur Shabnam’ later went on to create history.”
Abhijeet also recalled how Bappi da was fond of gold jewellery. He called it his ‘obsession’. He said, “I know Bappi da from the time when he did not wear so much gold. He had an obsession with gold, so he would often talk about it with people on his own. He used to love it when someone asked him about it. He was also very fond of hosting parties on his birthday and other occasions since the beginning. His parties would have more strugglers than celebrities. I used to be one of them. He never restricted his guests even at such lavish and expensive 5-star parties. Everyone was invited to his party.”
The ‘Tauba Tumhare Yeh Ishaare’ singer also revealed that he couldn’t attend Bappi da’s last party. “The last time when Bappa was here, there was a party to celebrate 50 years of Bappi da in Bollywood, and all the singers and music directors were invited. I was trying to postpone a work meeting, but I couldn’t as I had a flight on that day. I regret not being able to attend the last party with Bappi da and I couldn’t meet him,” he concluded.
