Veteran singers Kumar Sanu and Alka Yagnik turned down the songs of AR Rahman’s National Award-winning 1992 hit, Roja.

“When we were offered the project, we didn’t know who Rahman was. We would record five songs a day back then. Travelling to Chennai for recording seemed difficult,” says Yagnik, as Sanu adds, “That’s perhaps the greatest regret of our career. The album had such beautiful songs. We wish we had sung them.”

Alka Yagnik and Kumar Sanu. Pic/Shadab Khan

A.R. Rahman