After the massive success of the movie Dil in 1990, producer Ashok Thakeria and director Indra Kumar produced and announced their second film in 1991 to be titled Beta. Except for the lead actors, they decided to repeat their entire old team, as it was a winning combination. The film featured Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit and Aruna Irani in pivotal roles.
Since Dil’s music had achieved big success, the second time around, Indra Kumar naturally had great expectations from Anand–Milind and me.
‘Brothers, Beta’s music should be bigger than Dil’s,’ Indra ji said to us.
But when the time came to present our songs to him, he rejected all the mukhdas we gave to him. It was very difficult to work with Indra Kumar because he did not like anything easily. The only way to work with him was to keep working hard, keep searching for new lyrics and music and keep presenting him with new renditions of our ideas. It was not possible to simply convince him by writing new lyrics and making fresh compositions. To satisfy him we had to find pre-recorded music from regional Indian cinema or world cinema as reference to get him to understand what the final result would sound or look like.
Brothers, give me a song like “Kate nahin kat te ye din yeh raat”,’ he gave us a reference this time around.
‘Kate Nahin Kat Te’ was a very popular and sensual song from the film Mr India (1987). It was picturized on Sridevi whose dance and grace had elevated the video and had immortalized the song. After that, every producer–director wanted to have at least a song like ‘Kate Nahin Kat Te’ in his film which could ensure its success. Indra ji was no different pushing us for a song like that.
After that, Anand–Milind and I made an uncountable number of mukhdas and tunes. Indra ji used to hear them and reject them all. But we kept making songs in the hope that one day he may say ‘yes’. Then one day both the producer and the director very happily came to the studio.
‘We’ve got the song,’ Indra ji said happily.
I understood that he has heard and liked an already composed song from some other music director for his film. ‘Congratulations! If you’ve got the song of your choice, so why do you need us now?’ Anand asked him.
‘No man, it’s not like that. Wait, I’ll explain,’ Indra ji gestured to us to sit.
It was the era of the VCR. Indra ji quickly loaded a VHS cassette into the VCR and switched on the TV. A South Indian song started playing on the TV set. It was a Tamil song ‘Abbanee Tiyyani’, filmed on Sridevi and Chiranjeevi, which was composed by Southern music maestro Ilaiyaraaja.
‘Guys, copy the tune!’ Indra ji proudly said to us.
Like I said earlier that Indra ji only understood ‘a readymade product’ and that’s why he was impressed by a superhit song and asked us to copy it. But it was not easy to make a hit Hindi song on a Tamil tune.
We had no issue because the film Beta itself was also not an original film but an official Hindi remake of a Tamil superhit film, Enga Chinna Rasa (1987).
Anand–Milind’s task had become considerably simpler as they stumbled upon a pre-composed tune and groove that provided a solid foundation for their work. However, the true challenge lay before me. I faced a blank slate when it came to writing lyrics for the distinct ‘tat tat ta tat tat ta tara’ sound. I had to consider multiple aspects, including ensuring the ending of the sound synchronized seamlessly with the new lyrics, while also meeting the director’s request for a touch of sensuality in the song.
After hearing the tune again and again, a few words came to my mind: ‘Dhak dhak karne laga, jiyara darne laga’.
It fitted the tune perfectly. Anand–Milind jumped up on hearing the mukhda. Indra too liked it very much. I completed the lyrics by giving it the feel of a folk song.
Anand-Milind, with their hard work and creativity, took this song to another level. Everyone was very happy with the end result. Since the music of the film was going to be released by T-Series, the song was to be sung by Anuradha Paudwal. While recording at Sudeep Studio, she added the word ‘ouch’ to the lyrics from her side and made the song sensual right from the beginning. I remember that Udit Narayan had shared a joke with Anuradha ji, which made her angry and for a while the studio atmosphere was quite tense, but on the mic Udit Narayan supported her by singing the male part of the song by matching her mastery. Choreographer Saroj Khan was available at the recording and, with her eyes closed, was busy planning the shots and dance moves.
‘Now you guys just see what dhamaal I’m going to do with this song,’ Saroj Khan predicted the fate of the song to us before leaving the studio.
And she proved herself right by choreographing it brilliantly and turning it into an everlasting dance number. Madhuri followed the dance instructions of her ‘Master ji’, the great Saroj Khan, to the T. On release, when people saw the magic of Madhuri dancing on the big screen, they were hypnotized.
Anuradha Paudwal and Saroj Khan won awards for immortalizing the song. Anuradha ji won the Filmfare award for the best playback singer while Saroj Khan won the Filmfare award for best choreography. Anand–Milind were nominated for the best music director but lost to Nadeem–Sharavan for Deewana (1992). But Anand–Milind received a bigger award later when they were praised by Ilaiyaraaja himself, who was the creator of the original tune of this inspired song. I wasn’t nominated for ‘Dhak Dhak Karne Laga’, but that year turned out to be very lucky for me because I received my second Filmfare for Deewana’s ‘Teri Umeed Tera Intezaar’.
The success of this film turned Madhuri Dixit into a superstar, and the success of this song gave her a new identity—she began to be called the ‘Dhak Dhak Girl’.
(Excerpted with permission from Sameer Anjaan & Shuja Ali’s ‘Lyrics by Sameer’; published by Rupa Publications)