Today I met Ismail Darbar, he did one film with AB, Mehbooba 2008, it released after a delay of 6 to 8 years, in 2008; he said ‘The most amazing thing in Bakshi saab was, and I have not found that in any writer even today, is that he was so fond, so passionate, so deeply interested in writing, even though we required one mukhda and three antras, he would offer us three to four mukhdas as a choice for every song, and six to eight antras once we selected the one mukhda we needed. To me that explains why most of his producers, directors, composers, who worked with him over the years have the same compliments for him that how much and how fast Bakshi saab wrote songs for them, even though it was not required because our songs have only 3 to 4 verses in total – that showed that Bakshi saab was so passionate about writing that he wrote for reasons beyond what anyone paid, beyond what was needed, and that is an artist who I consider ‘Khatarnak’!, and that is why I always compliment him by telling people ‘Toba, Toba, Bakshi saab khatarnak the.’ Unka toh aaj bhi muqabla nahin. I have asked many many writers to write me a song like ‘bali umar ne mera haal woh kiya’ from ek duje ke liye, and no one, no one, no one has been able to meet that challenge for me so far. For me song writing ended with that one song, and now if any writer can write a love song better than that song from ek duje ke liye, for me a writer of caliber has been born once again. Until then, we will just have to miss khatarnaak bakshi saab.’
– Told to me – Rakesh Anand Bakshi