Mumbai: On the 12th anniversary of musical-drama ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’, the duo behind its chartbuster music album, Salim-Sulaiman, revealed that the lead actor Shah Rukh Khan made the songs “timeless” and the tune of ‘Haule Haule’ was actually inspired by the director Aditya Chopra.
About the creative vision for the song, Sulaiman Merchant said, “The film was so well written, conceived with exact places and spots for songs and the brief was very simple. Raj and Suri (both played by SRK) were to have their own distinct identities through music. Suri being the traditional husband and Raj, the urban hero.”
“The music had to be simple melodies that even the most basic person would be able to sing and get the feeling of comfort and love when you heard them. Quite a tall order coming from the legacy of Aditya Chopra and his mega-successful films with super hit songs,” he added.
The other sibling from the duo, Salim Merchant, said that composing music for ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ was a “huge” opportunity. The siblings had worked with Chopra (as a producer) on ‘Chak De! India’ and ‘Aaja Nach le’ but collaborating with the latter as a director was “special”, the musician said. “We wanted this album to be most memorable for us and the audience but more importantly, I wanted the music to work for the film.”
Even though all songs were made with specific junctures of the story in mind, Salim explains that they had a common thread and he termed it as the “biggest USP” of the music album. “They belonged to the same world and were very reflective of the characters. The importance of the Golden Temple in the story and the song added a devotional and timeless quality to the title song.”
“I think the simplicity of the songs with strong traditional melodies and production of music to have the cutting edge, yet the familiar sound was the USP of the entire album. We set out to create good songs rather than hit songs and that made the songs so special,” Sulaiman added.
A lesser-known fact is that the mukhda of the song ‘Haule Haule’ was apparently Chopra`s tune. Sulaiman revealed that the song’s lyrics were derived from the scene that the director had written and it went on to become a dialogue in the film: ‘Taani partner, haule haule jo jayega pyaar’.
“Aditya kept humming a kind of rough tune to these lyrics and it sounded good, even in its rough basic form, so we decided to develop it further with Jaideep (Sahni). We decided to keep the melody as simple as possible. “SRK, often hailed as the king of romance in Bollywood, made the songs memorable by his performance, Salim said adding that the superstar “truly celebrates” every song on screen and makes them “timeless”.
