"when the fan was switched on, Pooja didn’t hold her skirt down."
While discussing Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, Farah Khan recalled an on-set incident where a spot boy fainted after seeing a thong.
Farah spoke about her first major project, which was choreographing ‘Pehla Nasha’ from the 1992 film.
Revealing that the opportunity came to her by chance, Farah told Radio Nasha:
“Saroj ji was doing the song, everyone knows that.
“Then something happened, and she had to rush back to Bombay to shoot with Sridevi or Madhuri while we were stuck in Ooty. She left and didn’t come back.”
With the production losing money due to the delay, director Mansoor Khan turned to a relatively inexperienced Farah, who had only choreographed a few shows at the time.
After being given the opportunity, Farah asked for one day to reimagine the song.
It was Farah’s idea to introduce a dream-like sequence and she was inspired by Marilyn Monroe’s iconic skirt-blowing scene for Pooja Bedi.
In the scene, Sanjaylal (Aamir Khan) sees Devika (Pooja) wearing a red dress and dancing in the street.
As he runs towards her, she stands on a car while her dress blows up.
It is one of Bollywood’s most iconic shots and Farah Khan explained that Pooja stood on top of a car with a fan blowing from below.
Farah instructed Pooja to hold her dress down, however, a mishap in the first take resulted in a spot boy fainting.
She recalled: “It was my idea to shoot Pooja Bedi in that Marilyn Monroe style.
“I told Pooja that when the fan goes off, you hold your skirt down.
“In the first shot, there was a spot boy holding the fan, and when the fan was switched on, Pooja didn’t hold her skirt down.
“The spot boy fainted, and that is the first time I saw what a thong looks like. Pooja was bindass; she didn’t care.”
Farah Khan also reflected on her first meeting with Shah Rukh Khan and working with him on the film Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa.
She said: “We started the shoot in 1991, and I was also new.
“We were in Goa, and I’d only read an interview of Shah Rukh in which he sounded very brash and arrogant. I was very scared.
“I remember what he was wearing and doing when we first met; Kundan Shah introduced us.
“Sometimes, you instantly hit it off with somebody. You feel like you’re friends from school.
“That’s what it was like with Shah Rukh. We had the same interests, we’d read the same books, we had the same sense of humour.”
She also revealed that she was paid more than SRK for the film.
“The budget was very low. Shah Rukh was paid Rs 25,000 (£235) for that movie. I was the highest-paid person on that movie, let me tell you.
“I was paid Rs 5,000 (£45) per song, and there were six songs. Just because of that, I was paid Rs 30,000 (£280).
“We couldn’t even afford an assistant. So, that full song ‘Aana Mere Pyar Ko’, we cast regular people from Goa.”
Loading ...