You have always resurfaced after a low. And your filmmakers to keep returning to you.
I think that they are missing something that they always found in me. I have given a lot of thought to these things of late. Change is an axiom of life. I have never believed that it was about age or the difference between old and new, because talent cannot go down with age. What is important is growing and changing with age. And changing creatively is the key.

But the changes in the last three years have been major shifts in tastes.
True. Everyone loves new sounds, new things. There has been a lot of experimentation in this period. Riffs, high-pitched voices, different sounds coming in from all sides have ruled. Some people have called this good music, others have termed it bad. But for me genres, styles and sounds cannot be evaluated so simplistically. To me music is what touches your hearts and connects, regardless of whether it is classical, thumri, rock or anything else. If you cannot hum the tune, it will be forgotten.
A time had come when sounds became as important as the mukhda. In the days of factory sounds and rhythms available for use, a composer began to be evaluated on his sound! I know of music directors who engulf the studio with such sound and impress the filmmaker.
But what happens finally? At the end you begin searching for that melody that you have been missing deep down all along. In short, you start hunting for songs in the real sense, not riffs, not catchphrases but the melody that is ingrained in every Indian‘s psyche. I think that is how directors started showing interest in my work again. My music room has no computer or fancy gadgets. Whatever the genre, I compose the melody on my harmonium. I adore my harmonium, and it will never get outdated. Packaging cannot be confused with content. I am blessed with the gift of melody. My father, Sardar Malik, told me that every note that comes out of me must have melody.
Didi (Lata Mangeshkar) is still our greatest musical treasure and I hope to record a song I have composed with her in mind very soon. Just a few days ago when we met somewhere, she wanted to confirm that I had composed the song Kiska hai yeh tumko intezaar main hoon na.She told me that it has been on her lips for days now. To me it was like the biggest award, just like Kishore (Kumar)da telling me that I was a bigger romantic than him when he heard the antara I had composed for him for Banke nazar dil ki zubaan from Aasmaan.

What is your honest opinion about the younger music directors?
Can I be honest? I respect them and can learn a lot from them, for they are all very talented and have come up with new kinds of tunes apart from new sounds. I can learn a lot from my daughter and her generation and from the ‘Net too. And do you know why? When I came in Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Kalyanji-Anandji and R.D.Burman were at the top and I was looked upon, often with scepticism, as the upstart! They seemed to be thinking, “Can this guy ever have depth?“ At that point itself, I had decided that I must respect any new person who comes in.

You have also been a trendsetter, yet never been known as one.
That is because I have never followed a trend that I myself set - for I moved on! Yeh kaali kaali aankhen from Baazigar had many follow-ups. In the ‘90s, in songs like LML, Ruk ruk ruk and so many others, I was the first to integrate English lyrics, which is a norm now. Mujhe mast mahoul mein jeene de from Fiza was the first modern Sufi number - today it is very trendy. Kajraa re and so many modern or fusion qawwalis came after I composed Tumse milke dil ka from Main Hoon Na. Naiyyo lagda These songs were born out of the situation‘s needs as well as the passion to create something good and fresh.
And that‘s why I feel that my work in the last three decades is probably the tip of the iceberg within me. I strongly feel that I have still not been used, except in part by a handful of filmmakers like Mahesh Bhattsaab, J.P.(Dutta)saab, Mansoor Khan and Farah Khan. Bhattsaab actually wanted me to bring the intense romantic within me, while J.P.Dutta extracted music that others would not look at and yet was among my very best work, like Border, Refugee for which I won a National award, LOC Kargil and what I consider among my very best works - Umrao Jaan.

Umrao Jaan and Jaan-E-Mann were the latest in a long line of scores by you and other composers that never got what they deserved when the films bombed. Isn‘t that very upsetting?
Music directors, lyricists and singers work their hardest and cannot be expected to think how the film wll turn out. It is therefore unfair on the part of music companies to abandon the music if a film flops. The two aspects - film and music - should be kept distinct and since they are audio companies they should push every music they take up. Marketing is vital today as with the pace of life and the flood of products, the people have to be made aware of what is there in the market.

The days of close singer-composer teams are over. Are you open to new singers?
Haven‘t I always been? I have always been open to talent and today I am working with singers like Debendu, Mohit Chauhan and my daughter Anmol as well as established singers. Anmol as a kid sang in films like Diljale, Biwi No.1 and later in Umrao Jaan and has done a course with the Trinity College of Music and learnt Indian and Western music, but her main training ground has been Anu Malik! I have taught her songs exactly in the same way that I would teach Lataji, Kishoreda, Sonu Nigam and Alka (Yagnik)ji. She catches my inflections and nuances perfectly and people have freaked out on hearing her sing.