What about your promises of roping in the talent hunt participants as playbacks for you?
Unlike other celebrity judges, I have fulfilled my promises. I made Raja and Sumedha (contestants of Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007) sing for Satish Kaushik’s Tere Sang. Amanat Ali sang my track in KC Bokadia’s Junoon. Mauli Dave is also singing in one of my films.

How do you react to allegations that the results of most of the musical talent hunts are pre-decided?
I disagree but it is true that often truly deserving candidates miss out the trophy because of public votes. Now we have suggested that winners should be decided on the basis of both public votes and judges’ opinions.

You seem to have a soft corner for Bengali contestants.
In Sa Re Ga Ma, my team didn’t have any Bengali contestants. Aneek Dhar, who won Sa Re Ga Ma, was in Himesh Reshammiya’s team. Himesh is Gujarati, so there’s no question of him favouring a Bengali.

What’s happening with your music video with Whitney Houston?
It is in the pipeline. Due to some family problems, Whitney is not available immediately. But we will do it in future.