Did you know Zakir Hussain could have been young Salim in Dilip Kumar-Madhubala starrer 'Mughal-e-Azam'?

Zakir Hussain was seven when he performed in public for the first time. It was around the same time that he met director K Asif on the sets of “Mughal-e-Azam” for what was almost an audition for the role of the young Prince Salim. But it was not meant to be.

His father, the tabla legend Alla Rakha, intervened and said his son was going to be a musician.

And Hussain, who went on to be one of the most accomplished tabla players in history, fulfilled his father’s prophecy.

Hussain died at a San Francisco hospital on Monday due to complications arising from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease. He was 73.

The tabla maestro recalled his early brush with the movies in Nasreen Munni Kabir’s book “Zakir Hussain: A Life in Music”. "

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“Did I tell you that I auditioned for young Prince Salim’s role in Mughal-e-Azam?” he is quoted as saying.

The filmmaker K Asif and his father knew each other, both regulars at Mohan Studio. While Alla Rakha was on the studio’s payroll, Asif, known for his obsession with detail and grandeur, was busy building the famous ‘Sheesh Mahal’ set for the song “Jab pyaar kiya toh darna kya”.

“Abba’s man Friday, Shaukat, took me to Mohan Studio one day. Shaukat has passed away now. Besides working for my father, he would moonlight as a film extra. So Shaukat took me to see Asif Sahib because he had asked Abba to send me over. I remember they were filming on the Sheesh Mahal set, and I met Dilip Kumar Sahib there.

“He looked at me, cupped his hands around my face and lifted my chin so that he could take a closer look. He turned to Shaukat and said: ‘Asif ke paas le jaana’ [Take him to Asif]. So that was that,” reads the book.

Before Asif could say anything, Alla Rakha had a change of heart and said, “Nahin, yeh actor nahin banega, yeh music karega. musician hoga .”

“It was hardly a real audition. I don’t think there were proper auditions in those days. Someone just looked at an aspiring actor and said: ‘Isko le lete hain’ [Let’s take him]. No one used to ask the actor to read lines or anything like that. That’s not how it was done… I don’t know what the outcome was but apparently my father had a change of heart,” Hussain recalled.

The young Salim was ultimately played by actor Jalal Agha in the film that released in 1960 and is considered an all-time classic.

Hussain took his father’s legacy of tabla to new heights and the silver screen did beckon later on in life.

Hussain acted in the Merchant Ivory film production “Heat and Dust”, “The Perfect Murder” and “Saaz”.