Yes Boss released on July 18, in the year 1997. The songs like Main Koi Aisa Geet Gaoon and Chand Tare are hummed to this day.
Speaking on the film’s superhit songs, Lalit Pandit says, “By the time Yes Boss released, we were on the top and had done some really prolific work in music which had been appreciated by the audiences. My brother and I were growing in our style of music and realising what genre of music we were good in. Since we were making original music and also I was arranging the instrumentation and interludes, the score overall in every film would naturally sound in a particular style. This style was emerging and it was greatly satisfying to be appreciated for the kind of music me and Jatin were doing!!”
Yes Boss came during Jatin-Lalit’s peak season. “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge had released and we were accepted by the industry as top composers who were heading straight up. The combination of SRK and J-L was working out for everyone. When the work was happening for Yes Boss, Shah Rukh was at the top and we had realised the importance of our music in his films!! This being Aziz Mirza’s second film with us after Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, we wanted to go even further and make a hit score for the film. This time lyricist Javed Akhtar was with us in this film, which added the strength of words to our songs.”
The music of Yes Boss came out to be a huge success and played a vital role in the film’s success. “I remember we got stuck on a song which was our mistake in recording. We composed Chand Tare; the song got messed up and got rejected by everyone. I realised too that something was amiss in the song but initially couldn’t figure out what went wrong. I had loved the start of the song but overall something indeed was wrong. I was very upset about the fact that a song of mine unanimously had got rejected and the producers, Venus Company, lost money! It was shameful to be rejected and I felt it!”
Chand Tare then underwent a change.
Recalls Lalit, “In about a week I had realised what had gone wrong. It’s hard to explain but the song, I realised, had a wrong rhythm and the antara was actually wrongly composed. I sat with my assistants and recomposed the antara, which I loved! Jatin too realised that now we were on the right path. But who would make the producers understand to re-record a song which had gone wrong?? We went to Javed Saab’s house and explained that we wanted to re-record the song after I sang the changes to him. He sort of agreed that it was better, but said the producers won’t agree to re-record and spend more money.”
This is where Shah Rukh stepped into the picture. “Javed Saab suggested the only way to make the changes in the song Chand Tare was to speak to Shah Rukh and ask him to put in a word to Ratan Jain. We went and met Shah Rukh and explained our wish to have the song re-recorded. Shah Rukh had great faith in us and said he will speak to producer Ratan Jain, which he did! Javed Saab wrote the antaras again to the new tune and now it was sounding perfect, so well written! I loved the introduction piano and I think it’s the best I have done after my Pehla Nasha piano piece.”
Lalit recalls the music of Yes Boss being a big winner. “The music was successful and we had another Filmfare nomination for the film. The best song in the album that won Abhijeet Bhattacharya his Filmfare Award was Main Koi Aisa Geet Gaoon, brilliantly composed by Jatin and had lovely words by Javed Saab. Yes Boss’s music was ahead of its time in terms of freshness of sound, and still remains one of my favourite Jatin-Lalit works.”
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