“It was such a popular group at the time in the UK,” recalls the actor, now based in Mumbai.
Salma, who was studying in a school in London’s Hampstead, says the novelty of the proposal excited her. After Gohil bought the rights of the original tracks, Khanna suggested the Agha sisters, having worked with Salma for a film titled Naya Johnny, which was never released despite its star-studded cast of Dev Anand, Hema Malini and Shammi Kapoor. ABBA, which had dominated the last decade with catchy numbers such as Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia and Super Trouper, was an obvious choice for the second. Amit Khanna, a lyricist and executive producer with Dev Anand’s Navketan Films, was commissioned to write original lyrics for the first album, Boney M in Hindi. It was the brainchild of London-based Pran Gohil, founder of British-Asian music label Multitone, who wanted to do a series of Hindi covers of western musicians for the Indian market. All the other Indian pop albums came afterwards,” recalls the hazel-eyed Salma, who later starred in B R Chopra’s hit film, Nikaah. Titled ‘Salma and Sabina Agha Sing the Hits of ABBA in Hindi’, the album was a unique experiment and a precursor to the Indipop revolution of the 1990s. The songs were sung by two teenagers, Sabina and Salma Agha, and went on to become one of the few non-film albums to be played on Ameen Sayani’s Binaca Geetmala.
As the Swedish Super Troupers get together to sing again, Sunday Times revisits a forgotten album of Hindi covers of their top hits In 1981, a year before Swedish pop group ABBA broke up, a group of Indians got together to release an unusual album - Hindi versions of their biggest hits.
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