‘Proper support needed to produce great musicians’

LAHORE:Sajjad Tafu, a household name in music industry, has said artists have not been properly supported from any quarters due to which great musicians could not be produced.

“We have not been able to produce great musicians. The artists, especially the hard-pressed musicians, have not been properly supported from any quarters, including the public and private sectors. We also have not been able to establish a single music institution and that is precisely the reason that our music of today doesn’t have flavour of those most memorable times,” he said.

Sajjad Tafu, a guitarist from ‘Mozang Gharana’ of musicians and son of famous tabla player Ustad Altaf Husain Tafu, entered the film industry at the age of 14 in 1974 and has lent his music to more than 2,000 films. His talent first came to the fore after his performance in Mehdi Hassan’s famous song “Pyar Bharay Do Sharmilay Nain”. He gained popularity as a solo guitarist from the film Bandish’s song “Sona Na Chandi Na Koi Mahal Janeman. He has spent nearly 45 years in the showbiz industry and has composed music for more than 100 films. He has performed in the US, UK, Singapore, Norway, Sweden, Holland and Denmark. The credit of launching Pakistan’s first instrumental album likewise goes to Sajjad when he launched his first album “Sufi Saga”. In his 40-year career, Sajjad has worked with almost all renowned singers, actors and musicians of the local industry including Robin Ghosh, Nisar Bazmi, Abdul Hameed, M Ashraf, Khawaja Khurshid Anwar, Amjad Bobby, Mehdi Hassan and Noor Jehan. For the love of guitar, Sajjad forfeited his career as a ‘Tablanawaz.

He told The News, “My father taught me tabla but I was interested in guitar from the beginning. After the golden period of the film industry was over, my first priority became earning for food. I started teaching guitar to the students at Alhamra and have taught around 3,000 students.”