When Adnan Sami clarified if Ameesha Patel starred in his video due to financial crunch

Back in the early 2000s, Adnan Sami was known for his star-studded videos, featuring some of the biggest stars of the time.

Singer Adnan Sami celebrates his 52nd birthday on August 15. And to mark the special day, we bring you a special memory straight from the archives. Adnan Sami, who is among the most well-known singers in the country, made his name in Bollywood with his star-studded music videos in the early 2000s.

Adnan Sami worked with Ameesha Patel on the music video for O Meri Jaan. 

He made videos with stars such as Rani Mukerji, Govinda, Amitabh Bachchan and many others. One of the videos also starred Ameesha Patel. She starred in the video for O Meri Jaan in 2003, almost three years after her debut in Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai opposite Hrithik Roshan. In 2003, she starred experiencing a slump in her career and many wondered if her decision to star in a music video was based on that.

However, Adnan cleared it in an interview that such was not the case. “She is a close friend of mine. She did not charge a single penny for my video. There are rumours that she did the album because she was going through a financial crisis, but that's untrue. In fact, all my actors have worked free of cost purely as a gesture of friendship. They have not done it professionally, they have not charged me. They know videos have limitations. The budgets are very low. And I am very grateful to them. It was fun working with Amisha. She is enormously talented and very versatile,” Adnan told Rediff.com in 2004.

He also spoke about being told about Govinda's tardiness when he signed him on Lift Karade, his most famous song to date. “The first actor I worked with was Govinda. He is a wonderful person, very generous and full of love. People had given me the impression that he comes late but I didn't experience anything of that sort. Before the shoot, we practised for a while. There was amazing chemistry between us right from the time he walked into the room! We started jamming there and we got so excited; it was really working! He suggested, 'Let's not rehearse too much, it will start becoming mechanical'," he said.

Adnan was a Pakistani national when he was working in Bollywood in the 2000s. He became an Indian citizen in 2015.