Saroj Khan refused to choreograph Madhuri Dixit’s ‘Dhak Dhak’, accepted on one condition: ‘No one will question me’

ALSO READ: Mahima Chaudhry reveals Pardes director Subhash Ghai made her ‘cry’: ‘People used to shout, abuse loudly on set’

Saroj Khan, the master improviser

Recalling the story, Madhuri said, “I will in fact tell you a very funny story from the shooting of ‘O Ram Ji’. So obviously Javed Akhtar had written the words for it, and Bappi Lahiri had composed it, but no one briefed Saroj ji about the song. She was made to listen to the song and was asked for the steps. Now my character was very innocent, and I was supposed to be complaining to the elder brother (Jackie Shroff) about his younger one (Anil Kapoor), but she made it into a total Bollywood number.”

She added, “Subash ji stopped her mid-performance and said, ‘Esa character nahi hai ladki ka’ (This is not how the girl is like). But the genius of Saroj ji is that within minutes she had come up with a new choreography, and then you saw what she did.”

Madhuri toiled hard for ‘Ek Do Teen’

The actor talked about the shooting of one of her most iconic songs, ‘Ek Do Teen‘, from the N Chandra film Tezaab. Madhuri revealed that she initially didn’t understand the meaning or reasoning behind the song and said, “The first time I heard ‘Ek Do Teen’, I didn’t understand it. I thought they didn’t have enough words, and that is why they have put numbers. But then I realised the meaning behind the song.”

She continued and said that Saroj ji wanted her to work extra hard in order to prepare for a proper Bollywood number. “Right as the shooting was about to start, Saroj ji told me, ‘You have only done classical or semi-classical numbers. You haven’t done something like this, so you need to rehearse.’ I agreed, and for 13 days straight I rehearsed with her. At one point she got annoyed with me and said, ‘Tum ghar jaao abhi’ (You go home). But I stood there and said that I wasn’t going before finishing my rehearsal.”

Madhuri added, “Because I was used to dancing on stage, performing for a camera was difficult. But that song helped me learn so much about this art and how to dance for the camera.”

ALSO READ: Sunny Deol breaks down at first public appearance after dad Dharmendra’s demise at Border 2 teaser launch

Filming ‘Tamma Tamma’ with Sanjay Dutt

Madhuri then talked about the Bappi Lahiri song Tamma Tamma from the film Thanedaar, directed by Raj N Sippy. She recalled the difficult steps for the song and said, “Shooting Tamma Tamma was incredibly tough. We had 4 people doing the same steps: me, Sanju, and two backup dancers. Now if anything went wrong, they had to reshoot it from the beginning. We had to do 40 retakes because Saroj ji refused to cut. She wanted it all in one shot. We finally got the shot, and we were relieved, but we were so tired. Our knees were busted up by the end.”

‘Dhak Dhak’ was a last-minute addition to Beta

The Indra Kumar directorial, Beta, had the song ‘Dhak Dhak’ in it, performed by Udit Narayan and Anuradha Paudwal. The song is one of the most beloved from Madhuri’s discography, and yet it almost didn’t happen. Madhuri revealed that the song was a last-minute addition to the film and that Saroj ji worked everyone to the bone in order to shoot the song in the limited time.

“Now, like many other songs in the past, ‘Dhak Dhak’ also came to us in the last moment. Indu Ji (Indra Kumar) was adamant that he had to have this song for the film. I told him that I had to go for an outdoor shoot in three days, and it wasn’t possible. But he wouldn’t budge, and I finally decided to pull double shifts in order to shoot the sequence,” said Madhuri.

She added, “When Indu ji approached Saroj ji for the song, she told him, ‘I will give you the song in three days, but if I say that a shot is right, no one will argue with me.’ Everyone agreed, and that is exactly what happened. The moment Saroj Ji would be happy with a scene, we moved to the next sequence. People look at the song now and wonder how carefully it must have been shot; actually, it was shot very quickly without any breaks.”

Saroj Khan is still considered by all to be one of the greatest Indian choreographers of all time. She passed away in 2020, at the age of 71.