Padma Shri awardee Remo Fernandes is in celebration mode. After years of hard work penning his life story, he finally officially released his much awaited autobiography.

The book launch was held on Friday 4^th March 2022, at the majestic courtyard of R City Mall, Ghatkopar, Mumbai. Remo enthralled the audience with his take on his publishing the book and chronologically putting the dots together of his illustrious life. In conversation with Remo was Joseph a close acquaintance of Remo. Prodded by an enthusiastic audience, he even sang a few lines from his songs in Hindi, Portuguese, English and Konkani.

The desire to write an autobiography had first germinated around nine years ago, when Remo penned three chapters of the book. “I started around nine years before I actually completed it, I did three chapters and then I got busy with something and then I said I’d do it afterwards. Once I started back on it I decided I wasn’t going to stop it and then I think I took about a year or maybe a year and a half to finish it. And then it took another year to finalize it, editing and publishing it and other things with my publisher Harper Collins. That’s how long it took me, I would say two years of my work”, says the Goa’s superstar.

Remo went back to the days when he was a small boy and living with his parents. He recounted the Goa of the time which is also is a large part in the book. “My roots are of just plain happiness in the Goa I grew up in. I know people who are still falling in love with the Goa of those days. I was eight when the Portuguese left and till I was 18, nothing had changed in Goa. There were no illegal structures, nothing. Goa has changed in many ways” he stated, while adding, “I miss the simplicity of life, the honesty and warmth of the people, and everyone having more time on their hands. There’s violence in Goa today, which was unheard of then,” he says.

He also said the music scene in Goa it so different from what it was in his time. “It’s rare to find gatherings today where people will just bring out instruments and jam. Though there are many groups playing all over, they don’t try to take on a look of originality, rather they try to ape the western world than portray what they truly are”.

The book also opens up on his childhood days with his family, to his time when he started out as a relatively unknown artist in the 1970s, recording his first albums in his home studio and distribute them around Goa on his yellow scooter. But soon, he was to become a national craze, with blockbuster hits to his credit in English and Hindi pop, and in film music as well. His popular songs were on everyone’s lips with super hits that include Jalwa, O Meri Munni, Humma Humma and Pyaar to Hona Hi Tha, Hello Rajiv Gandhi not forgetting his top English song Bombay City. You also cannot forget the Lehar Pepsi jingle Yehi Hai Right Choice Baby Juhi Chawla and the very infectious The Flute Song.

The book all of 508 pages has a narration in a very casual conversation style where Remo narrates the story of his life, it’s Remo talking to you.  The author has divided the book into four parts and in chronological order takes you on a journey from Siolim, Goa to Porto, Portugal and back to Siolim, Goa, which is good for the reader to understand the journey he took.

He stated “The writing drag on for years, but the lockdown helped me give it undivided attention until completion,'' he says about his autobiography, which was released on 30^th November 2021.

The book widely shows what Remo truly loved – music, drawing and writing. Today the 68 year old who spends half the year in Portugal and half in Goa, is all this and much more. Singer – songwriter and author. He says there are still a few things that are not mentioned in the book. And when we prompt him to reveal it, he says with grin on his face. “I will tell you all about it when the time is right”.

Book – REMO - The Autobiography of Remo Fernandes

Publisher – Harper Collins

Hardcover – 486 pages

Price - Rs. 799/-

By Verus Ferreira