Celebrity Profile

To be an achiever, one has to be a dreamer. To be a dreamer, one has to have courage because dreams have the unique ability of shattering at wrong places and wrong times. There are only few showbiz personalities whose dreams have occurred at the right places and at the right times. One person who fits in the description is Salim Javed. He had the determination to make his dreams come true no matter how many sacrifices he had to make.

He started his career in the early 80s from Hyderabad but got recognition from Karachi. He shifted to Karachi with his luck, courage, determination and, above all, a sweet voice that took him places. Siddiq Mukesh, a music teacher at the Petaro Cadet College helped him in learning the basics of music. For the past two decades, when the governments and the style of music were changing in Pakistan, Salim kept his name and style of music alive. When asked about why he chose to shift to Karachi, the bhangra king explained, "My first priority was to become a musician, but Siddiq Sahib advised me to become a singer. He thought that I would be in a better position by using my vocal chords than my grey cells. I opted for Karachi because options were limited in Hyderabad as in showbiz you require attention." Karachi has always been the singer's dreamland as it has produced singers like Alamgir, Muhammad Ali Shyaki, Sajjad Ali, Tehseen Javed, Junaid Jamshed, Ali Haider and Ali Azmat.

Salim settled in Karachi in 1983 and a Koyo-Koyo Music Center supported him well. "As I was new to Karachi, I took help from Koyo-Koyo, and that was the place from where I could operate and where I could be contacted," said Salim. Salim Javed is an improviser as he has several things to his credit. "I introduced re-mixing in Pakistan, by remixing Noor Jehan's jaana mai jaana in rock music. There was no concept of such a style then. Later, I remixed Rushdi Bhai's dil ko jalaana and Mehdi Hasan's ek baar chale aao. My aim was to revive old Pakistani numbers in a modern tone so that the youngsters will listen to the old songs.

But I was really hurt, when new singers with a couple of hits started re-mixing their own songs. Whenever re-mixing is discussed, all the blame comes to me. What can one do? I wanted to use re-mixing differently but it has fallen into the wrong hands," complained the soft-spoken singer.

Apart from re-mixing, he has the credit of introducing dhol, laser lights and cordless microphones on stage. Salim Javed is one of those early birds who reached the first singers from Pakistan whose video was shown on MTV. His claim to fame were the re-mix versions of jugni, shidi jaambo and laila ho laila. All were folk songs that have been revisited by Salim Javed in his style i.e. traditional, cultural songs mixed with modern, western beats. When Salim's first few albums entered the market, they disturbed the cassette managing registers as they all had record sale.

The general music scene came to a halt due to the infamous PTV's 'no pop' policy. On this dark chapter of local pop history, Salim sighed, "Since 1977, local pop scene has effected badly. Bollywood has remained at the top for the last 50 years because their government never intervene with the creative art while every government in our country thinks as its responsibility to hurt the performing art."

The big complaint he has against media is that it never welcome one's creativity. "Ahmed Rushdi was considered the originator of pop music, only after his death. I know how miserable he was in the last few years and how he was treated by media. Alamgir was regarded as the 'King' of pop, only after his exit. Nazia and Zoheb came as a cool breeze and were only accepted by the masses only when they had vanished. Everyone knows what restrictions they had to face throughout the martial law days. I introduced some devices on the stage, but never faced appreciation."

Salim Javed, being a die-hard cricket fan, wants to leave the music world, just like Imran Khan left the cricket world at his peak. He replied powerfully, "my fans always admire the selection of my dresses, and I, myself, have a liking for them. That is why I am planning to open a boutique in the near future at any of Karachi's busy markets. As for in music, he is working on his 11th album (name has not been decided) which he rates as 'another of his type'. The best thing for a singer is to have a style of his own, which I think Salim Javed marvelously possess.