O Rey Chhori
A.R. Rahman: “Originally, this tune was for my album Maa Tujhe Salaam and not Lagaan. It was also a lot slower, and Aamir wasn’t a fan. He told me Karan Johar’s film is releasing around the same time and that he has amazing romantic songs. He asked me, ‘What have you done?’ and then we ended up speeding up the song.”
Aamir Khan: “Also, I don’t know how many people are aware, but the English lyrics in this song were written by Farhan and Zoya [Akhtar].”
Javed Akhtar: “Yeah, these are some of the benefits of educating your kids and sending them to college.”
Mitwa
Javed Akhtar: “The word ‘Mitwa’ was never actually meant to be in the song, but Rahman told me that he needed a word here that would become the hook, and that’s how we got the word ‘Mitwa.’ He didn’t have a great grasp of the language back then, but his thoughts were uncannily correct. That is the genius of AR Rahman.
It was very important that the music would have been of the time shown in the film but palatable to the current audience. It is s Rahman’s master stroke that he managed the orchestra the way he did; it was the perfect mix of nostalgia and modernity.”
