‘KKHH is a vulgar title’: Why Javed Akhtar refused to write songs for Karan Johar film, he brought in Sameer to make SRK-Kajol-Rani film sound young

The lyricist didn’t find any vulgarity in the title Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. “I got to know after a while that Javed sahab felt the title was vulgar, he said, ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai koi title hai?’ Jab mai likhne baitha, tab mai young tha, aur uss pyaar ke ehsaas mai dooba hua tha, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai kab hota hai? Jab aap pyaar mein hote hain,” he said.

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Sameer added, “I didn’t see anything wrong with the title, hence I wrote the songs. My belief was that if the director has kept this name, then he must have thought it through and there must be some story behind. Unki apni soch rahi hogi, islie unhone aisa kia.”

When he actually sat to work on the lyrics of the title song Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Sameer tried to bring Javed Akhtar’s touch with poetry. However, Karan Johar wanted his own simplicity and style in the track. “When I was offered to write the songs, I thought that because this film went to Javed sahab first, I should add in some shayari so that Karan is impressed. However, as soon as I narrated a paragraph, he got angry suddenly, I got the opposite reaction,” he said.

He continued, “He said that I called you because you are young and this is a story of college going students, I want the style that you write, absolutely simple. He didn’t want shayari at all. When I went with the second attempt, I told him that this is looking very simple, log bolenge ‘Yeh kya gaana likhdia maine’. Karan was confident and he reassured that I shouldn’t stress. He got what he wanted, there is no need to make it good, better, best.”

Featuring Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, and Rani Mukerji in lead roles, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai hit the theatres in 1998. The classic film and its songs are celebrated and remembered till date.