MUMBAI: The Aditya Chopra directorial Mohabbatien was released exactly 20 years, and choreographer Farah Khan walked down memory lane and recalled choreographing Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the cold weather of London.
Released in 2000, the love story features Aishwarya as the lover of Raj (Shah Rukh Khan). Her character commits suicide when her conservative father (Amitabh Bachchan) refuses to approve her affair with Raj. The film also features Jimmy Sheirgill, Uday Chopra, Jugal Hansraj, Shamita Shetty, Preeti Jhangiani, Kim Sharma, Anupam Kher and Archana Puran Singh.
Apart from its cast, the songs and dance are a major factor for the film's success.
Sharing anecdotes from the film, Farah said: "Ash being a thorough professional, freezing in London, wearing a white lace saree, drenched, and she would not complain. Her and Shah Rukh's chemistry is something else in the film and that whole poetry of 'Ek ladki thi anjani si' -- I think that has become almost iconic because of how they did it."
She added: "We were not supposed to know at that point whether Aishwarya was Shah Rukh's imagination or not. He would see her in places and she was the spirit behind the love stories."
About the shoot, she said: "We shot in London. We shot in freezing cold nights with rain and we went to Switzerland to shoot two songs. One of them was 'Humko humi se chura lo', which I think is one of the best songs in the film, really beautifully done."
Farah also shared how SRK was an expert at picking up her choreographed steps with utmost ease.
"With Shah Rukh I had done tons of movies by then. So, all these kids (Uday Chopra, Shamita Shetty, Jimmy Sheirgill, Preeti Jhangiani, Kim Sharma and Jugal Hansraj) would do two to three months of rehearsals. And then, Shah Rukh would come and he would learn it in like five minutes, because he never comes for rehearsals. That was the amazing part of it," Farah remembered.
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