Honey Singh would not have seen this coming. Neither did we! Pankaj Jha, pursuing PhD in Sanskrit grammar at Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, New Delhi, has sung the Hrithik Roshan and Sonam Kapoor-starrer song ‘Dheere Dheere Se’ in Sanskrit!
Originally sung by Kumar Sanu, the song which appeared in Aashiqui (1990) was later covered by Honey Singh in 2015. Come 2016, Jha has made an unusual cover of the song, which has gone viral.
Jha has replaced the lyrics of the Hindi song with Sanskrit words with the same meaning.
“I came upon the idea in class. A student wanted to know if Sanskrit dealt only with old stories and shlokas. I told him there were songs as well. The kid then challenged me to render a Sanskrit version of the recently released song Dheere Dheere Se Meri Zindagi by Honey Singh. I translated the entire song in the class,” Pankaj told
Unlike English and other foreign languages, Sanskrit offers little scope for career growth. Why, then, should anyone bother to learn it? “Apart from academics, one can look at ways to popularise Sanskrit. Many plays, songs and books are still being written in this language. You can also work as a translator at various embassies,” Pankaj replied.
Jha recorded the song only later, when he realised the potential that the Internet has and managed to arrange for a studio recording.
