Dhurandhar: 65-year-old song by Hrithik Roshan’s grandfather is Shah Rukh Khan’s favourite; was ‘inspired’ by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s father’s qawwali

The trailer of Dhurandhar ended with a 65-old tune, composed by Roshan, but like many other Hindi film tunes, this too, had a sordid past.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | Updated: November 19, 2025 03:59 PM IST

4 min read

Ranveer Singh-starrer Dhurandhar re-introduces a classic qawwali, 'Yeh Ishq Ishq Hao'.

Ranveer Singh-starrer Dhurandhar launched its first trailer on Tuesday and after all the gore and the violence, the trailer ended on a poetic, nostalgic note as director Aditya Dhar brought back a familiar tune. The end credits rolled with the lyrics, “Na toh karwaan ki talaash hai” and while the younger kids might not be familiar with this tune, anyone who has watched any season of Indian Idol, or any other singing reality show, will know that this is the tune that’s often brought back in qawwali rounds of such shows. One of the most popular qawwalis to ever come out of Indian cinema, “Yeh Ishq Ishq Hai”, composed by Roshan and written by Sahir Ludhianvi, is now being re-introduced to the younger audience via this film.

“Yeh Ishq Ishq Hai” was composed by music director Roshan, the grandfather of actor Hrithik Roshan, for the 1960 film Barsaat Ki Raat, and 13-minute song, which was reportedly recorded over 24 hours, was sung by Mohd Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Manna Dey, SD Batish and Sudha Malhotra. But, like most music from the Indian film industry, this one too has a sordid past. It is said that producer R Chandra, who was the elder brother of the lead actor Bharat Bhushan, initially hired composer Khayyam for the film and asked him to make a qawwali based on the popular Pakistani qawwali, “Na Tu Butkade Ki Talab Mujhe,” which was created by Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan and Ustad Fateh Ali Khan (father of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan). Khayyam wasn’t interested in taking on a project where he would be expected to plagiarise, but Roshan didn’t have any qualms about it, and so, “Yeh Ishq Ishq Hai” happened.

During the Netflix series The Roshans, Shah Rukh Khan said that this was his favourite song by Roshan. “My favourite song is actually a qawali by him. I think I nearly know the whole qawwali if it is playing,” he said. Singer Sonu Nigam further added, “It’s like they say, ‘Never before this, never after this’. To this day, there is no qawwali like this. It takes a real genius mind where you have all the ingredients that you need, but how do you use them? That is the biggest hallmark of this qawwali.”

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Roshan’s late wife, Ira Nagrath, said that Roshan had immense confidence in the song and knew that despite its length, it would be something to remember him by. “I told him that people don’t even listen to 3-minute songs, so why have you made a 15-minute qawwali? Who has the time to listen to this? He paused and said, one day they will walk around with a chirag (lamp) and ask where is Roshan?” she said in the same series.

Vishal Dadlani, while speaking of Roshan’s work in the series, said, “People may not know which film this song is from, and who was the actor here, but they know the song. The music is bigger than time, that is Roshan saab.” 65 years later, Arjun Rampal said something very similar at the trailer launch of Dhurandhar, albeit about the film, “We will pass away, but this picture will remain.”

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