Javed Akhtar has written some of the most popular Hindi film songs of all time, and in a recent interview, the veteran writer recalled the circumstances in which he wrote the romantic song ‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha’ from 1942: A Love Story. Picturised on Anil Kapoor and Manisha Koirala, the song is often described as one of the most romantic Hindi film songs of the 1990s, but for Javed, the source of inspiration for this song was ‘terror’.
Talking to Red FM India, Javed said that he was the one who suggested to director Vidhu Vinod Chopra that the scene in question demanded a song, but as soon as he walked out of that meeting, he forgot about it. He shared, “I suggested that there could be a good song here. He said, ‘No, it’s not the right place. The boy and girl have not even met yet. He has only seen a glimpse of her and he doesn’t even know that she lives here, he is still looking for her, where will we fit a song here? And anyway there is a romantic song in a while so what’s the point of a song here?'” But since Javed insisted, Vinod asked him to write a song and present it four days later.
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On the day of the meeting, Javed realised that he had forgotten all about it. “I was so embarrassed that I have convinced everyone for a song, what will I tell them? While I was driving, I was very nervous and tensed and embarrassed. What will I tell them? That I forgot?” But then, he had an idea.
Javed recalled that he entered the meeting with complete confidence and uttered the line ‘Ek ladki ko dekha toh aisa laga’, which he had thought of on the way. “I said I have this line, and this will be followed by similes. I said if you like the idea, then I will write the song,” he shared. RD Burman liked his idea, and asked him to write the first few lines, and Javed got to work immediately. “I sat in the corner and wrote the first para.” Upon reading it, RD sang the first few lines without much thought and the song took shape. Javed laughed that he has told many women that they were his inspiration for the song, but “the source of inspiration of this song is terror.” Kumar Sanu sang the song in the film.
In the same conversation, Javed also recalled that he wrote the famous Hindi film ghazal by Jagjit Singh ‘Tumko Dekha Toh Yeh Khayal Aaya’ in nine minutes. The song was composed for Raman Kumar’s 1982 film Saath Saath, starring Deepti Naval and Farooq Sheikh. Javed said that the director kept looking at the watch as he was getting late and had to catch the last train of the day. “He told me that I wrote it in nine minutes,” he shared.
Javed recently wrote lyrics for song in his daughter Zoya Akhtar’s Netflix film The Archies.
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