When Farah Khan wanted Javed Akhtar to write meaningless lyrics

Mumbai, Nov 25 (IANS) Lyricist Javed Akhtar revealed that Farah Khan had once asked him to create meaningless lyrics for the track ‘Dard-e-disco’ from the film “Om Shanti Om.” 

An old video of Akhtar making this startling revelation is doing the rounds on social media. During his appearance on the show Cyrus Says show, Javed shared that the protagonist of the film is wheelchair-bound and explained that he was asked to write lyrics that were intentionally nonsensical, with phrases like “disco, dance, dream-world.”

In the viral clip, the lyricist could be heard saying, “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. 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.”

Javed added, “The director of the film, Farah told me ‘Javed uncle I want a song in which any line does not have meaning because the whole situation is absurd.’

I realised for the first time that to write gibberish is very difficult. I’m happy that it was fairly meaningless.”

The peppy number "Dard-e-disco,” sung by Sukhwinder Singh, is one of the most popular tracks from the 2007 released romantic fantasy. The film starred Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Shreyas Talpade, Kirron Kher, and Arjun Rampal.

“Om Shanti Om” was Padukone’s first Bollywood release. The film centers on Om Prakash Makhija, played by SRK, a struggling actor from the 1970s who tragically dies in a mysterious fire on set while working with his beloved, the famous actress Shanti Priya (Padukone).

Years later, Om is reincarnated as Om Kapoor, a successful superstar in the present day. Driven by a desire for revenge, he sets out to confront Mukesh Mehra (Rampal), Shanti's powerful producer husband, who is responsible for his untimely death.

The film went on to become the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2007 and the top Hindi film of all time.

--IANS

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