3 min readChennaiMar 21, 2026 10:40 AM ISTJaved Akhtar with Gulzar. (Pic: Varinder Chawla)Mani Ratnam’s film Dil Se was iconic in every way. Apart from its hard-hitting story, the film’s songs were also legendary, with fans still swooning to those tunes composed by AR Rahman. Amid all this, it was Farah Khan who choreographed some of the film’s most iconic tracks, including “Satrangi Re”, which was picturised on Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala. Farah had the task of taking Mani Ratnam’s vision forward in the choreography of the song, but she faced a challenge – understanding the lyrics penned by Gulzar.In a recent interaction with Ranveer Allahbadia, Farah recalled that they were shooting for the song in Ladakh, but to conceptualise it, she had to understand the song’s lyrics. For this, she reached out to her uncle and Hindi cinema’s legendary writer Javed Akhtar. She said, “I did not understand the meaning of this song because Gulzar sahab had written some difficult words in it. You will not believe that I had to call Javed Akhtar to ask him to translate Gulzar’s lyrics for me. On top of that Mani Ratnam did not know Hindi, the cameraman didn’t know Hindi, AR Rahman (the composer) didn’t know Hindi. So from Ladakh, I was calling Javed uncle to understand the lyrics of the song. Javed Uncle asked, ‘Yeh kya likha hai? Yeh kisne likha hai? (Who has written this?).”However, later, Farah asked Javed to write a nonsensical song inspired by Gulzar’s writing in Om Shanti Om. She revealed, “After that, when we were doing ‘Dard-E-Disco’, I told Javed uncle that I want a nonsensical song, but I want it in Gulzar sahab’s way. In 5 minutes, Javed uncle wrote that song.” ‘Dard-E-Disco’ was sung by Sukhwinder Singh, composed by Vishal–Shekhar, and choreographed by Farah. For the unversed, Javed Akhtar’s first wife Honey Irani is Farah Khan’s aunt, which is why the two share a family connection.ALSO READ | Dhurandhar 2 Box Office Collection Day 2 LIVE Updates: Ranveer Singh film crosses Rs 330 crore mark; Rakesh Roshan says ‘Aditya Dhar has started a new era in filmmaking’Earlier, while speaking on Take 2 podcast, Farah had spoken about how even Mani Ratnam was clueless about the “Satrangi Re” track. She said, “The funniest part was Gulzar sahab had written this part of the song that described the seven stages of love. Mani sir doesn’t know Hindi, so he was asking us. We couldn’t understand what’s written, so I used to call up Javed uncle and say, ‘Ye kya likha hai, mujhe explain karo’ (Please explain what’s written to me). ‘Halka-halka uns hua.’ What’s uns (affection)?,” recalled Farah.Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd