Jodhaa Akbar - What a Royal Night It Was - The Music of Jodhaa Akbar Release

That night, the night of January 9 at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai was a memorable and magical night. It was like being transported to one of those great nights celebrated by Jodhaa and Akbar during his reign, with a touch of today. It all started with the royally designed invitation card. The d?cor in an around the hall was done all in Mughal splendour. The music played before the night to begin was royal. The jam packed hall of celebrities gave the look of one of the darbars of Emperor Jalaluddin Akbar Khan. The touch of royalty started with the very snacks that were served, the more than delicious food and drinks and the hospitality, all touched with royalty. It had to be. It marked the zeal and zest to celebrate the human effort of one young man to bring alive an entire era and its entire splendour. I would not like that night to be described in any way because it was a night difficult to describe. The night when Ashutosh Gowariker and UTV hosted a party to launch the music of one of the most eagerly awaited films, Jodhaa Akbar which has been in the making for the last two years. There was a feeling of enthusiasm, excitement and great expectations on every face except on the face of Ashutosh, the one man warrior who lead a team of other warriors to make a film like Jodhaa Akbar in these days when filmmakers, even the best of them are vying very hard to find every ray to find all the easy way out. Ashutosh was the centre of all attraction because of his courage and conviction to make a film he had made. The making of his film was what I would like to call the "Shahjahan kind of efforts" to build Taj Mahal. He had proved how brilliant he was as a director with Lagaan and Swades but the making of Jodhaa Akbar was like working in a different world, in a different age and time and making an effort to bring one of the most golden eras in the history of India come alive. Ashutosh was also fortunate in having UTV, the only Indian company ranked among the top ten in the world?s stock exchange to inspire him all the way to make the film as he visualized it, conceived it and wanted to make it. Mr. Ronnie Screwala, the head of UTV said his company was proud to be a part of film made on a canvas and magnitude no film has been made in several decades. His company, UTV was also so overwhelmed by the music of Jodhaa Akbar that it decided to launch UTV Music as an offshoot of the parent company.

Ashutosh Gowariker who confessed he was nervous (which was still being very brave after making a film like Jodhaa Akbar) was not a bundle of nerves of bags full of gratitude. He was grateful to everyone connected with the making of the film. He was grateful to Mr. D Y Patil an educationist and a social worker for reasons best known to him. He was grateful to all his stars, Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and all the other artistes. He was specially grateful to Poonam S Sinha, wife of Shatrughan Sinha who made a comeback as an actress after almost three decades and playing Hamida Begam, the mother of Akbar. There was a strange kind of emotion which emerged when he expressed his gratitude to his wife, Sunita, again for reasons which could only be seen in the expression on his face.

Hrithik Roshan looking as dashing and handsome as ever and who is otherwise an eloquent speaker found words making themselves difficult to come to him to express his feelings about being a part of Jodhaa Akbar. He too was a painting of gratitude to everyone from Ashutosh to the technicians, down to the assistants and the spot boys and to the large audience who had come to encourage what I would like to call "Team Jodhaa Akbar". Aishwarya with her legendary father-in-law in the audience and her husband Abhishek faraway from her was all beauty and blush and a bouquet of thank yous till she almost seemed to choke. There should have been award for the best speaker of the night and the award without any doubt would have gone to the lyricist of the film, Javed Akhtar