Prashant Singh (HINDUSTAN TIMES; January 22, 2020)

Don’t be surprised if you spot Sajid Nadiadwala at a piano class soon. Well, the filmmaker has all the reason to sign up for one as he is now the proud owner of a classy grand piano, which has been gifted to him by a special person — music maestro A R Rahman.

“Not many know that Sajid and Rahman share a special bond. They first met during the making of Highway (2014) and the former found it a great experience working with the latter. In fact, Sajid, who produced Highway, still remembers that though the story didn’t have much scope for music but it was Rahman’s mastery that the film ended up having a melange of some beautiful tracks,” says an insider. Later, the two also went on to team up on the Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone-starrer Tamasha (2015).

Coming to the piano, since Sajid loves music and has a great ear for it, he was thrilled when Rahman, unexpectedly, dropped in to his office with a special gift — a classy, bright-red grand piano. “What made things even more special is the fact that Rahman personally came with the gift. It goes without saying that Sajid was extremely thrilled and elated to see him and was touched with such a thoughtful gift. Rahman got the piano especially from the US. It was an emotional moment for Sajid because he is extremely fond of Rahman and also has a lot of respect for him as well as his talent,” says the insider.

Now that he has the piano, Sajid, who is equipped to play the guitar, plans to take the piano lessons as well. When contacted, an ecstatic Sajid told us, “I feel extremely overwhelmed accepting Rahman’s token of love, and respect towards me. I just want to thank him a lot for such a beautiful piano and hopefully, I’ll learn to play it soon.”