Q. What's playing on your I-pod these days?
A. 'Jab Se Tere Nanina', from the film, 'Sawaariya'.
Q. What kind of music do you like, and what kind irritates you?
A. I like all kinds of music. Every genre has a form and each form has a certain beauty. Nothing irritates me.
Q. Which movie, do you think, has better music – 'Om Shanti Om', 'Sawaariya', or 'Jab We Met'?
A. (Laughs)'Jab We Met' is my film, so I would think it has the best music. Actually, I would not want to comment on 'Jab We Met'. I really like the music from 'Sawaariya', because it has a lot of emotion.
Q. Name five of your all-time favourites.
A. That is a difficult question. It is difficult to shortlist only five from so many songs. From the top of my head, these would be my favourite five – 'Aane Wala Pal Jaane Wala Hain' from 'Golmaal'; 'Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi' from 'Aandhi'; 'Allah Tere Naam', from 'Hum Dono'; 'Dark Side of the Moon' by Pink Floyd; and 'Bohemain Rhapsody by Queen.
Q. And what makes you dance?
A. There are many romantic songs that make me feel like dancing. Any song that has an Indian rhythm makes me dance.
Q. Do you prefer remixes to the originals?
A. I prefer the originals.
Q. Which is your favourite romantic song?
A. Difficult choice, again. 'Lag Ja Gale Se', from the movie, 'Woh Kaun Thi', with Sadhna and Manoj Kumar, is one of my favourites. The situation in the sequence makes it one of my favourites.
Q. Is today's music on par, better or not a patch on the old numbers? Explain.
A. Music is always the same, and will remain that, according to the time that it is set in. If you ask a musician 50 years later about his take on older music, he will say that the music of today is better.
Some music, like the one in the 60s and the 70s, becomes extremely popular, and also becomes a trend. It was the Golden Era of film music. Rajnee Gupta