Zakir Hussain Could Have Played Young Salim in 'Mughal-e-Azam'

Zakir Hussain was seven when he first performed in public. 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, tabla legend Alla Rakha, jumped in and said his son was going to be a musician.

And Hussain, who would go on to become one of the most accomplished tabla players in history, fulfilled his father's prophecy.

Hussain died in a San Francisco hospital Monday from complications of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease. He was 73 years old.

The tabla maestro remembered his early brush with the movies in Nasreen Munni Kabir's book "Zakir
Hussain: A Life in Music". "

"Did I tell you that I auditioned for young Prince Salim's role in Mughal-e-Azam?" he is quoted as saying.
Filmmaker K Asif was a frequent visitor to Mohan Studio and had a connection with his father, too. And when Alla Rakha was working on the payroll of the studio, Asif was designing the most extravagant set-the famous 'Sheesh Mahal'-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 utter any words, Alla Rakha was convinced otherwise and said, "Nahin, yeh actor nahin banega, yeh music karega. musician hoga (No, he won't be an actor, he'll play music and will be a musician)."

"It was hardly an audition. I do not think there were proper auditions at that time. The person just looked at an aspiring actor and said: 'Isko le lete hain.' No one used to make the actor read lines and so on. That was not how it was made. I do not know how the result came about, but apparently my father decided to change his decision", Hussain said.

The young Salim was finally portrayed 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 worked for the Merchant Ivory film production "Heat and Dust", "The Perfect Murder" and "Saaz".

His last screen appearance was in the Dev Patel's "Monkey Man", a beautiful scene where Patel's character trains in boxing to the beats of the tabla.