Aamir Khan Wanted To Scrap Aati Kya Khandala From Ghulam But Was Nominated For Best Singer Which He Lost To Shah Rukh Khan’s Chhaiya Chahiya ( Photo Credit – Youtube )
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Aamir Khan and Rani Mukerji’s film Ghulam has completed 25 years recently. The film was appreciated well and was directed by Vikram Bhatt. A major part in the film’s success was two things – the songs and the maachis scene, which went viral in the times when there was no internet owing to Khan’s genius marketing streaks.
While Ghulam was being made, the cult classic Aati Kya Khandala was not planned at all. The major attraction till then was the song, Jaadu hai tera hi jaadu, for which the brief was given to Jatin – Lalit to create a song which had the feel and essence of Aamir Khan’s previous chartbuster Pehla Nasha.
In an interview, Lalit Pandit, the composer, recalled how Aamir Khan was totally not sure if he should sing ‘Aati Kya Khandala’. In fact, the song was not even there in the first place. The composer recalled the making of the iconic tapori song of Bollywood. Scroll down to read the story behind this song.
While Aamir Khan was travelling for the film’s shoot with the music directors Jatin-Lalit in his car, he was singing Sagar Jaisi Aankhon Wali, and everyone was amazed at how beautifully he pulled that song. Lalit Pandit immediately suggested Aamir sing a song for the film leaving everyone excited for the idea. Talking to Subhash K Jha in an interview, he recalled, “Aamir was probably surprised and wasn’t saying anything. We spent the whole night at the set watching Aamir shoot. During the shoot, writer Nitin Raikwar came up with the idea of Aati Kya Khandala. He wrote it superbly, in a style which suited Aamir’s language in the film.”
However, the Ghulam actor was not at all convinced with the idea. The composer narrated the actor’s conditions for the song, “Everybody was excited, but Aamir was very careful. He said we will secretly record this song and no one knows about it. And if he didn’t like it we will scrap the song and do something else. The song was composed and rehearsals began. Aamir was wonderful. The song, as we all know, came out very good. Aamir sang quickly with the kind of swag that Vikram had in mind!”
But the song had more hurdles than one could imagine. Once it was recorded and shot, Aamir Khan did not approve the way the song was shot. He scrapped the song’s first shoot, and they had to reshoot the song, which made it to the final cut. Interestingly, later that year, he was also nominated as the Best Singer for Aati Kya Khandala for a popular award, but he lost it to Shah Rukh Khan’s song Chhaiya Chhaiya which was sung by Sukhwinder Singh.
Later in an interview, Aamir Khan accepted that Aati Kya Khandala contributed a lot to the film’s success. However, he promised never to sing again since he wanted to let people think that he was a good singer, and this memory of a good song Aati Kya Khandala stays relevant in his career.
The actor performed the song years later at an event with Rani Mukerji, and you can watch it here, shared by a Youtube channel Rani Mukherjee Chopra.
For more such throwback stories, stay tuned to Koimoi.
