MUMBAI: In order to celebrate 25 years of togetherness, Roop Kumar and his wife Sunali Kumar have released the album 'Zikr Tera', which comprises eight songs. All the songs on the album are ghazals and have been penned by Shakeel Azmi, Madan Pal Amratsari, Sani Aslam and Praveen Kumar Ashk. The album is composed by Roop Kumar Rathod.

"As we celebrate 25 years of marriage, we thought this album was the best gift we could give our listeners," said the 'Tere Liye' singer Roop Kumar Rathod. The duo has not released a ghazal album in the last five to six years. "The kinds of songs we hear today are very different, so we thought why not give our youngsters something that is not just easy on the ears, but also easy to hum," said Sunali. According to her, the languages, Hindi and Urdu, are losing their essence, due to the kind of lyrics that are used in songs today.

Voicing his opinion on the kind of lyrics used in the films and songs, Roop said, "If the radio stations play 'Lungi Dance' 25 times in a day, then obviously a child will start humming the songs. If you play good content, then you will see the change."

According to them, despite ghazal not being a part of mainstream cinema, it is liked by the youngsters. "When we go for our live shows, our young audience often asks us the meaning of a word or about the ghazalas we have sung. This means a lot of youngsters like the genre," added Sunali Rathod.

The duo has released the album independently on the internet without backing from a label. When asked the reason, Roop said, "We have been doing this for a while now. We go to the label and ask them to release the album, which eventually becomes their property. With the absence of royalties, it is the artiste who suffers. So we thought that the internet is so huge today, we might as well release it ourselves rather than depending on others."