AR Rahman says he didn’t compose ‘Khwaja Mere Khwaja’ originally for Jodha Akbar, asked Ashutosh Gowariker to not change anything: ‘I won Oscar two years later’

Then on a flight to Australia, he was trying to crack the melody for a romantic song, but wasn’t getting the right one. So he experimented and tried using it as the song dedicated to Khwaja. “I recorded the full song. I asked Kashif (lyricist) to write the whole song. One year later, Ashutosh comes and tells me the story of Jodha Akbar,” added the music director in an interview to NDTV.

Ashutosh Gowariker explained that Mughal king Akbar (played by Hrithik Roshan) visits the Khwaja Dargah Sharif in Ajmer, which was a small dargah at the time. “‘Woah! I have a song,’ I said. But he said, ‘I don’t want a song. I just need two lines.’ I said, ‘But this is a whole song. I’ll come up with another.’ He said, ‘No no, play it,’ recalled AR Rahman.

After Gowariker listened to the full song, he held Rahman’s hands and kept repeating, “Please give this song to me.” “I said, “Okay, but you can’t change anything,’” said Rahman, adding, “And then in two years, I get Oscars,” referring to the release of “Khwaja Mere Khwaja” as Khwaja’s blessings.

AR Rahman got not only “Khwaja Mere Khwaja,” but also an item song “Mayya” from Mani Ratnam’s Guru (2007) from a spiritual visit. “I was doing Haj (annual pilgrimage to Mecca). People selling water there were saying, “Moya! Moya!” (water in Arabic). I said, ‘Oh, that’s a hook for a song!’ Anyway, Mayya doesn’t have anything to do with water. It’s just the sound that’s inspired from that,” revealed Rahman. “Mayya,” written by Gulzar, featured the lead actor Abhishek Bachchan alongside Mallika Sherawat.

While this wasn’t exactly religious, Rahman recalled another song he came up with for pure, devotional reasons. His late father used to wake up every morning and compose music in front of late legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar’s portrait. So, Rahman always wanted to work with her. She went on to sing memorable songs like “O Paalanhaare” from Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan (2001) and “Jiya Jale” from Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se (1998) among others.

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But Rahman wanted to sing a duet with Mangeshkar out of pure greed. So, he convinced director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra to force fit the song “Luka Chuppi” in Rang De Basanti (2006), when R Madhavan’s character dies and sings from beyond the grave to console his mother, played by Waheeda Rehman, her voice rendered by Mangeshkar.