7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Amitabh Bachchan's dance brought Saroj Khan back to Bollywood after she quit, moved abroad after marriage: ‘He said I can't dance, have two left feet'
Saroj Khan's life was nothing less than a tragic movie and while she eventually gained success in the movies as one of the best choreographers of her times, she went through a traumatic time before she achieved that feat. In a recent interview, actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar spoke about a chapter of Saroj's life when she left everything in Bollywood behind and moved to the Middle East for her family. She had made peace with her regular life until she watched Amitabh Bachchan dance to 'Khaike Paan Banaras Wala' in the film Don. Farhan shared that it was watching Bachchan dance with glee and abandon that prompted her to come back to Mumbai and become a choreographer in Hindi movies.
During an interaction on the YouTube channel Tried & Refused Productions, Farhan shared he did Nach Baliye with Saroj in the early 2000s and at the time, he was scripting the new version of Don, starring Shah Rukh Khan. Farhan recalled Saroj talking to him about his project and sharing her personal memory of the film. He said, 'Saroj ji told me, 'I got married and went to Middle East. I had left choreography.' She used to be a background dancer, then she became a choreographer and then she got married and she moved. She left India to stay in the Middle East and she was living there.'
Farhan continued, 'Saroj ji told me, 'This film Don released in 1978 and I saw the song Khaike Paan Banaras Wala and I realised, this man, he is having such a great time dancing on this song. And I knew him, he always used to say I don't know how to dance. I have two left feet.' Don was actually the first film in which Amitabh Bachchan danced. All his previous films Zanjeer, Deewar, Trishul were him playing angry young man. She said, 'I saw that I became so happy. The joy of dancing and choreography came up in me again. So I decided to come back and started choreographing in Hindi films again.''
Farhan recalled that he initially struggled to bring the iconic song into his remake but eventually managed to do so. The director then asked Saroj Khan to choreograph the song in his film. 'For her, it was a life coming full circle moment and I think she did an outstanding job and Shah Rukh just let go and he had a blast,' he said.
Saroj Khan passed away in July 2020 at 71.
