Adnan Sami Khan, better known as Adnan Sami is a music composer, lyricist, actor, singer and pianist. He was born in 1973 in London, England to Indian and Pakistani ancestors and is presently holds a Canadian citizenship. He is settled in Mumbai, India where he spends most of his time working with the Bollywood Film Industry as a music composer and singer.
He specialises in modern pop-rock and usually belts out tracks which are a mixture of South Asian classical along with Western music. With well over 100 songs and 10 chartbusters in the past decade, he is one of the well established musicians of the Bollywood Industry. Popular tracks like "Tera Chehraa", "Sun Zara" and "Kabhi Toh Nazar Milaao" shot him to fame. Judging popular T.V. shows like Indian Idol, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil Champs made him more familiar with the audience and he became everyone's favorite.
Personal Life
Adnan was born to Arshad Sami Khan, a Pakistani Pathan and Naureen Khan, an Indian Muslim. While studying in Rugby School, Stockholm, Sami started playing the piano when he was as young as 5 years old. He would take piano lessons from Pandit Shivkumar Sharma in India. Then he started learning Indian classical music from Maharaj Kathak. Adnan graduated from King's College, University of London after which he went on to become the fastest man on the electric keyboard. Asha Bhonsle was one of his inspiration's to take up music full-time. He was given an award by UNICEF when he was only sixteen years of age after he wrote a song for Ethiopia which was famine-struck.
Adnan Sami married Zeba Bakhtiyar for a short period of time during which he had a son named Azaan Khan. Zeba played the leading female role opposite Adnan in the movie "Sargam". And after their separation, the Lahore High Court awarded the custody rights of Azaan to Zeba. In 1997, Adnan abducted Azaan and the two of them started living in Dubai. Zeba appealed to the High Court to regain custody of Azaan saying her husband abducted him. In May, 1998, Zeba appealed before the Canadian Court and was given back the custody of Azaan. According to Adnan, Canadian officials almost broke into his house, arrested him and quietly took away his son. He dearly loved his only son and after he was given away, he cancelled all his tours, concerts and recording dates because of which he lost millions of dollars. It was around that time when he started taking food to stay out of depression. This became a regular habbit and it reached it's peak in the year 2006, June, when Adnan weighed 206 kilos.
In the year 2001, Adnan married Sabah Galadari. However they decided to call it quits a year and a half later. In 2002, he again appealed to a Pakistani court to let him have custody over Azaan and stated that Zeba previously misguided the court to get rights over their son. After Adnan sued the Canadian Government for having whisked away Azaan and having $30 million in connection with it, he claims to have won the case. By 2006, Adnan had to undergo liposuction because of his increasing weight. He lost 130kilos in one surgery. In the year 2008, his wife Sabah returned to him and started living with him again. On the 19th of June 2012, the Bombay High-Court granted them a divorce as Sabah alleged Adnan of alcoholism. He married for the third time a German woman named Roya Faryabi in 3rd of April 2010.
Professional Life
Adnan started his career with his first solo album entitled "Raag Time" in the year 1991 and composed music for his film "Sargam". After that, he teamed up with legend Asha Bhonsle for "Kabhi toh Nazar Milao", and the album sold over 2 million copies in India alone. He got his first Bollywood offer Boney Kapoor followed by Yash Chopra and Subhash Ghai. Another song that became a craze was "Mehbooba Mehbooba" from the movie Ajnabee in 2001. In 2002, Pepsi made him its brand ambassador and he did a string of concerts all around the world endorsing the product. His third album, "Tera Chehra" released in October of 2002. This also became a huge hit and in the same year, Adnan worked with A.R. Rehman in the film "Saathiya".
Sami had also sung for a few Telegu Movies entitled "Boys" and "Aaytha Ezuthu" where he worked with Rehman again. His only Kannada song "Don't Worry Madabeda" from the movie "Super Star" was another blockbuster and he recieved two awards for it. After his surgery, he made a comeback with "Salaam e Ishq" and another solo album named "Kisi Din" in the year 2007. His last Bollywood composition was for a film named Sadiyaan that released in the year 2010.