Shah Rukh Khan and Malaika Arora in a still from Chaiyya Chaiyya. The song “Chaiyya Chaiyya” from Mani Ratnam’s film Dil Se is one of the most iconic Bollywood numbers. Though Shah Rukh Khan has given several memorable songs, watching him dance energetically on the train top with Malaika Arora in “Chaiyaa Chaiyya” will always stay special. But, shooting for the song was not a cakewalk for choreographer Farah Khan.
Farah had recalled asking for permission to shoot “Chaiyya Chaiyya” at Ooty railway station in an earlier interview with Bollywood Hungama. But the authorities refused to shut down the railway station for four hours. That is when the film’s director Mani Ratnam suggested shooting it on the top of a moving train and Farah agreed readily “not realizing how and what we would shoot!”
The team got an alternate track between Ooty and Coonoor and a separate train to shoot on for four days and as Farah describes it, it was a “fab experience”.
The team, including SRK and Malaika, shot the song without using any harness and safety. Farah narrated, “I was asked about the safety precautions. I used to say that I’d take extra dancers with me in case some of them fell off (laughs)! Luckily, there were no mishaps while shooting the song. We had no clue. We didn’t get the train beforehand to rehearse. We just climbed on it and we were like ‘chalo, start shooting’”.
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Farah also shared how Shah Rukh was excited to shoot “Chaiyya Chaiyya” on the top of a train and wanted to even climb on the train’s chimney. “He wanted to climb on the top of the train’s chimney also. We had to pull him down,” the choreographer-director said.
“Chaiyya Chaiyya” was composed by AR Rahman and sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Awasthi. Gulzar penned the lyrics of the chartbuster.
Dil Se, also starring Preity Zinta and Manisha Koirala, released on August 21, 1998. The film recently completed 24 years of its release.