Farah Khan has revolutionized choreography in Bollywood and given us some of the most memorable hook steps, including “You’re My Sonia,” “It’s The Time to Disco,” “Ek Pal Ka Jeena” and more. The choreographer-director recently reminisced about her deep admiration for the legendary music composer RD Burman. She vividly recalls her initial infatuation with his music upon hearing “Dum Maaro Dum” and expressed that her love for the legendary musician influenced the music in her film Main Hoon Naa. “Woh meri aatma mein hai (he is in my soul), which is why all the songs in Main Hoon Naa were inspired by his style of music. For my second film, 1942: A Love Story, when I learned that RD Burman was composing the music, I was excited. I used to go for music recordings like a chamchi and I would be present during every sitting. For me, it was like watching the god of music,” said Farah in a recent interview with Radio Nasha.
Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Main Hoon Na marked the directorial debut of Farah Khan. (Photo: IMDb, screengrab)
Sharing an interesting anecdote from the making of the film 1942: A Love Story, for which Burman was composing the music and Javed Akhar was writing the lyrics, she recalled the creation of the song “Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga.” During a music sitting with director Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who was assisting on the film, lyricist Javed Akhtar arrived without any prepared lyrics.
This picture shows Farah Khan with Manisha Koirala and Vidhu Vinod Chopra on the sets of 1942: A Love Story for the choreography of the song Kuch Na Kaho. (Source: Farah Khan/Instagram)
“Javed uncle walks in with a blank piece of paper. Unhone kuch nahin likha tha (he had not written anything). He had forgotten. He used to do that all the time. Woh homework karte nain the (He didn’t do his homework). He said, ‘Accha kya hai, fir se batao.’ He is being narrated the sequence where Anil Kapoor’s character sees Manisha Koirala for the first time and falls in love with her. He called his assistant and instructed him, “Accha likho (start writing)” and he went like “Ek Ladki ko dekha to aisa laga, jaise khilta gulaab, jaise shaayar ka khwaab, jaise ban mein hiran.” He went on without taking any pause. And he had written five other verses like that. We picked the best ones and he immediately handed out the piece of paper and said, “Yeh lo ho hagaya gaana (this song is done),” she recalled.
RD Burman passed away on January 4, 1994. (Photo: Express Archive)
To everyone’s astonishment, RD Burman then took his harmonium and instantly composed the tune. Farah recalled, “I get goosebumps when I think about it, but Javed uncle wrote the lyrics in five minutes, and dada (RD Burman) composed the music in five seconds. The best things are made like that.”
The track went on to become one of the most iconic romantic numbers in Bollywood but director Vidhu Vinod Chopra recently revealed that the track might not have made it to the album, if it wasn’t for Javed.
During the promotion of Sonam Kapoor’s Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, which he produced, Vidhu revealed, “Rochak must have done this song about 20-25 times. Javed saab (Akhtar) wrote this line in his car on his way to RD’s (Burman) house because he was very scared that he did not have a line. This song was originally not meant to be there in the film. When Javed saab insisted, I told him, ‘It won’t be there. You can write, but it won’t be included in the film.’”
“I asked him, ‘So, what’s the line?’ He said, ‘Ek ladki ko dekha toh aisa laga…’ He did not have anything beyond this! So, he continued, ‘Jaise…’ I asked, ‘Jaise?’ and he replied, ‘Jaise khilta gulab, jaise shayar ka khwab.’ He went on and on with lines like these, and as he said it, RD took out his harmonium and composed the hook line. This song was made within five-six minutes! I told Rochak that we could only touch the interlude of this song, not the rest of the song. We did only that and Rochak composed it brilliantly,” the 12th Fail director shared.
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