Javed Akhtar says Farah Khan demanded ‘meaningless’ lyrics for Shah Rukh Khan’s Dard-e-disco song: ‘It was an absurd situation’

Veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar, who penned the lyrics for the song Dard-e-disco from Om Shanti Om, has opened up about how he was told to write ‘meaningless’ lyrics for the song. The film Om Shanti Om was helmed by Farah Khan and starred Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone in lead roles. 

On the show Cyrus Says, Javed explained how he was told that the film’s main character is in a wheelchair, and he needs to say something absurd like “disco, dance, dream-world.”  The lyricist said, “If you are asked to write ‘meaningless,’ it’s a challenge. If you ask somebody to stand up here and speak for 2 minutes, there shouldn’t be any sense, although many times it happens, but it does not happen on a conscious level. It doesn’t happen on a conscious level. The moment you are aware that you have to speak gibberish, you start speaking sense. This was a situation where the hero in the film is in a wheelchair.”

He continued, “The director of the film, Farah told me that ‘Javed uncle I want a song in which any line does not have meaning because the whole situation is absurd.’ I realized for the first time that to write gibberish is very difficult.  I’m happy that it was fairly meaningless.”

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Dard-e-disco was crooned by Sukhwinder Singh. The singer had recently opened up about recording the song and had revealed that he recorded the song barefoot. In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Singh said, “I told my recordist to adjust two mics. It was the first time in my career that I removed my shoes and recorded a song. The reason behind this was that I was in a mood to dance. I didn’t want the sound of footsteps while recording. The song is a first of its kind, it is true to its melody but is a club song.”