How Kashmir impacted Abrarul Haq's decision to refuse film with Katrina Kaif

Abrarul Haq is a man who was quite coveted across the border. In his own words, the famed singer turned down a major offer from India. The musician was a guest on the Hafiz Ahmed Podcast, where he was asked about offers from the neighbouring country.

"Yes, I received movie offers [from India.] I also received an offer for an album. But I didn't understand their contract," said Abrar. Elaborating on the terms of the contract and his refusal, he shared, "'You can't speak, you can't talk about Kashmir, etc.' I thought that a country that believes in the freedom of expression shouldn't say such things. So I didn't do them." 

He added, "There's a company called Eros, they offered a movie. The actress was Katrina Kaif. My friends were after me, saying, 'If you don't want to do it, let us go!' But I didn't want to do movies." Abrar furthered, "They called me excitedly and they even said, 'No one has ever refused us, but you have. No one has ever told us they don't want to do [the film]. We thought you'd come running.'"

Talking about musical collaborations, Abrar stated, "It's ongoing. I've [collaborated] with Gurdas Maan, he's a favourite of mine." The singer also shared a hilarious mix-up. Shedding light on an anecdote about his manager being a "simple man", Abrar remarked how his manager mistook a 'Honey' reaching out as being a woman. After numerous calls and back and forth between Abrar and his manager and 'Honey's' manager's adamance, Abrar asked if it was Indian rapper Honey Singh who was trying to get in touch, to which his manager replied in the affirmative. 

"You don't know who Honey Singh is?" asked Abrar incredulously of his manager. The manager replied, "Honey Singh's manager said the same thing." Abrar said, " I told him that we want to work with Honey Singh!" He added that the two are fans of each other. Abrar also humbly admitted, "I don't consider myself a musician. I still don't know about chords. I don't know that A B C of music. I can't thank God enough for the fame I have received." 

Abrar also received that his mother passed away on February 4 1996. It was the month of Ramazan, and he was alone in the room with her. His cousin had called, and his mother had just passed by, giving him a chance to share a moment of affection with her. She told him that she wasn't feeling well and had to go pray. "Her arms were fun, they were like pillows for me," he recalled fondly, getting emotional. "Soft, I would place my head on her arms and sleep." 

"That was my last meeting with her, I didn't know," he said. When he went into the room, she was lying still. "Ever since childhood, we would see if her stomach was moving. Perhaps kids do this to see if their mother is alive, out of fear. It's a great fear to lose one's parents, and I was the youngest, the baby. I was extremely plagued by this fear. I was quite sensitive too."

Upon looking, he saw that her stomach was not moving. He looked again, thinking that perhaps her stomach had moved. Before leaving, he double-checked and wondered why his mother was completely still. He went closer, but she remained immobile. He placed his ear on her chest and could hear a heart beating vigorously, which he realised was his own. He lamented the fact that he did not know resuscitation, and said that everyone must learn how to do so. 

Shell-shocked, Abrar sat with his mother, unable to cry or understand what was happening. He could hear laughter in the adjacent room and wondered what would happen when his family found out about the tragedy that had struck. He informed them, and his father, in denial, kept trying to wake his mother up. That is when Abrar broke down. "She's not going to wake up," he remembered thinking. 

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