Chhaayaageet #205 - "Women should jump on the screen."
The filmmaker has only a short brief for the composer, "The boy has fallen madly in love with the girl. It is a naughty song." That's it. Nothing about location, indoor or outdoor. Nothing else. Just that.
The composer imagines the visuals in his mind. Probably all outdoors. Probably lot of crowd. Lots of dancers. With this in mind, he comes up with a beautiful tune. The filmmaker listens to the tune.
"See if the ghumar fits in the song. I think it might go very nicely," the filmmaker suggests. Ghumar is a traditional folk dance of Rajasthan. The composer is intrigued. How do you mix guitars and ghungroos? That would be quite a fusion. He imagines more dancers in the visuals in his mind. The ghumar indeed fits very nicely in the song. The filmmaker loves it.
Next, the filmmaker is set to meet the lyricist. "This is your kind of film," he tells the lyricist, proceeding to narrate the story. He then gives the lyricist his brief for the song, "It is a song about love at first sight. A young boy spots a beautiful girl, and now he is dying to meet her again and romance her." So far so good, thinks the lyricist. But what the filmmaker tells him next stumps him. The filmmaker adds, "Sir, I want this song to be remembered as the 'towel song'." The lyricist senses a great excitement in his voice.
"Meaning?", the confused lyricist asks.
"I'll be shooting the song with the hero wrapped in just one towel and singing," the filmmaker is very clear about how he is going to shoot the song.
The lyricist nods his head, although he is having a hard time visualizing how the towel is going to fit into the lyrics. He listens to the track prepared by the composer. It is a soulful, melodious track. Now the composition is with him for the lyrics. Back at home, he tries holding a towel in his hand, moving it up, down and sideways, staring at it all over, but he can't think of anything. Baffled, he is in a state of turmoil. What to write? What to do with this towel?
The lyricist recalls the filmmaker's brief for him. "The boy has gone crazy since he saw this gorgeous girl," the filmmaker's words ring in his head.
Suddenly a line appears on paper, along with a smile on the lyricist's face. But the flow of ink stops there. The next day the lyricist shares the line with the composer. The composer loves it. In a short while, the lyricist completes the rest of the song and reaches the filmmaker for his approval. The filmmaker also loves it and approves it without cutting a word or adding anything to it. "How did you manage to complete such a beautiful song in such a short amount of time?", he marvels at the lyricist.
All the songs are composed, written and recorded. It is a musical with ten or so tracks. It has taken almost two years for the music to be composed.
The filmmaker is now focused on the shooting of the song. He has a meeting with the choreographers and the actor to give them their brief. The filmmaker looks at the actor, "You have just fallen in love for the first time in your life. You are home alone. How are you going to be? It's a boy's private moment at his house, in his room. How is he going to be?"
Then he looks at the choreographers and says, "Insaan ko jab pehla pyar hota hai to woh first feeling kaisa hota hai. Woh describe karna hai humko is gaane mein." When a person falls in love for the first time what is that feeling. That is what we want to describe in this song.
He leaves them alone to think about it. The choreographers try to work on how to convey what the filmmaker wants. After some time, the filmmaker comes back to them. He has a suggestion, "Shayad ye gaana towel mein karein to kaisa lagega?" How would it be if we did the song in a towel? Mind you, he's nurtured this idea in his mind for two years already.
They decide to give it a shot. They ask a hand on the set to bring a towel. The actor is asked to wrap it around him, and see how it feels. Is this even feasible? If a towel is wrapped around him, then the movements have to be soft and slow to ensure the towel stays on. They start to rehearse with the towel.
The filmmaker checks in to see how it is coming along. The movements are too soft and slow to his liking. He explains, "We have the joy of a boy fallen in love and doesn't know what to do with himself. He is going to be carefree. He is just going to be himself. And we have to hold this song for 3 and a half or 4 minutes, and yet not look vulgar. It should not look embarrassing for him or for us. But the boy has to be carefree. He is alone in his house."
After a lot of rehearsals, everyone is ready to shoot the song. In the opening montage of the song, the actor is putting on a tease with the towel. The underwear that was on him during rehearsals is now off. At one point he has to drop the towel and bare his rear. Some of the girl assistants ask in jest if they can go over on to the other side of the actor. The filmmaker reprimands them, "Of course not."
As they are ready to shoot the opening sequence of the song, the filmmaker has very detailed instructions. Every action, every movement, every turn, every nod of the head, everything needs to be synchronized to the beat.
"Baby yehi chahiye haan. Every ta every dhin every ting every ta. Aur pehla hi movement mein aise paise fenkne chahiye. Women should jump on the screen", he commands the actor. Baby this is precisely what I want. Every ta every dhin every ting every ta. And in the first movement they should throw money. Women should jump on the screen. The actor giggles. But he has no inhibitions whatsoever.
After about 40 or 50 takes the first sequence is okayed. After a few days they move to a different sequence in the song. Here the actor is sitting on a chair and as he wheels it back, he is supposed to fall off it. The actor is mentally prepared for it. He knows it will take another 40-50 takes of him falling off the chair. The filmmaker is a task master and a perfectionist. He is very particular about how he falls, on what beat he falls, how the towel spreads out when he falls, how much of his leg should be visible, when he gets up, at what point he needs to catch the beat, on which beat he needs to lift his head, very detailed instructions.
After about 50 takes, the actor has hurt his back and he is in pain. The filmmaker calls wrap up. The actor is glad that this shot is done. Next day they may start filming another sequence of the song. He nurses his back through the night. There is no time to be out of commission. He reports back to the set the next day.
The filmmaker informs him that he is not ok with the falling-off-the-chair sequence. The towel has not fallen correctly. They are going to reshoot it again today. It takes 70 more takes before the filmmaker is finally happy with the towel.
Once the song is finally shot, the filmmaker calls the composer to take a look. The composer remembers the visuals that he had in his mind while composing it. Outdoor shots, lot of people, lot of dancers. He is blown away at how the filmmaker has shot the song.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed Saawariya (2007) which featured the "towel song", Jab se tere naina, music by Monty Sharma, lyrics by Sameer Anjaan. The song is sung by Shaan and filmed on Ranbir Kapoor. Both Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor debuted their acting careers with Saawariya. Both had been assistant directors to Bhansali on his earlier film Black (2007). Monty Sharma, who is the nephew of Pyarelal Sharma, and cousin of music director, Mithoon, also worked with Bhansali before. Monty composed the background score of Devdas (2002) and Black. Monty had impressed Bhansali even earlier and as a result had gotten to arrange music for a couple of songs of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999).
The scene where Ranbir Kapoor drops the towel baring his rear was censored by the CBFC (Central Board for Film Certification), or they gave Bhansali the option to retain it with an A-certificate. Bhansali chose to cut the scene as it didn't take away anything from the song and the film.
Bhansali conceived Saawariya as a poetic opera. Unfortunately, the film turned out to be a disaster at the box office. It opened on the same day as Om Shanti Om (2007) and could not stand up to the competition. The film is based on the short story White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and told over the course of four nights when the hero and heroine meet. Since most of the film was to have night scenes, Bhansali decided to shoot the film in blue undertones for Saawariya being a popular name for Lord Krishna and blue being the color of Krishna. This cinematographic choice didn't go well with the audience. At the film's premiere itself, the industry practically wrote off the film. Rishi Kapoor got upset with Bhansali for spoiling his son's career, but eventually came around to acknowledging the film. Despite Saawariya being a failure at the box office, it established Ranbir Kapoor's bonafides as a legitimate star, and the song Jab se tere naina continues to endure in popularity.
Saawariya received Filmfare Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Rani Mukerji), Best Female Debut (Sonam Kapoor), Best Music Director (Monty Sharma), Best Lyricist (Sameer Anjaan for Jab se tere naina), and won for Best Male Debut (Ranbir Kapoor), Best Male Playback Singer (Shaan for Jab se tere naina).
Watch Shaan performing a beautiful but slightly different version of the song at Coke Studio MTV:
Music: Monty Sharma
Lyrics: Sameer Anjaan
Singer: Shaan
*ing: Ranbir Kapoor
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Film: Saawariya (2007)