When the country is yet to fully come in terms with 34-year-old actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s passing away, here comes another devastating news for the Indian cinema lovers! Ace choreographer Saroj Khan left for her heavenly abode on July 3 at the age of 71 due to sudden cardiac arrest in Mumbai. She is laid to rest at Mumbai’s Malad Cemetry.
The three-time National Award winner had choreographed some of Hindi cinema’s most iconic songs and gained the reputation of choreographing at least 2,000 songs to her credit in the course of a career spanning over 40 years. She mastered the craft of inducing the dazzle of Bollywood into the traditional Indian dance forms.
From choreographing Nutan at the age of 14 to becoming the ‘guruji’ for dancing diva Madhuri Dixit, the legendary journey has not been a cake-walk for Saroj Khan. Behind paving the way for becoming a successful dance choreographer in the landscape of the Indian film industry went lots of sweat and tears for her.
“It has been a long struggle with many ups and downs in my personal life…The dances I compose and direct do not show the tears and the heartbreaks in my life,” she is heard saying in Nidhi Tulli directed documentary ‘The Saroj Khan Story’.
“The Saroj Khan Story began as a search for the genius behind one of the greatest choreographers Indian cinema has ever produced. What remains is a deeply personal story of determination, passion, extraordinary skill, and the sheer will to survive that is both intimate and inspiring. I was a fan of hers like most people who know about her choreography are, but it was during the making of the film that I discovered that she is a genius and she wears that so lightly; she is a perfectionist and a very passionate dancer,” remarked the documentary director Nidhi Tulli.
Childhood
Saroj Khan was born as Nirmala Nagpal in 1948. During partition, her parents lost everything as they migrated to the then Bombay.
“My parents moved to India from Pakistan after partition. My father, Kishanchand Sadhu Singh was a Punjabi, while my mother, Noni, a Sindhi. My father had a flourishing business in Pakistan but he had to leave everything behind when he came to India. I was born in India.” she said.
Despite hailing from an orthodox family, her passion for dance was indomitable. “I used to see my shadow and dance. My mother thought I was a retard and took me to a doctor who told her ‘she just wants to dance, so let her dance’,” she mentioned.
Later, her father was diagnosed with cancer and was unable to work. Being the eldest among her four sisters and a brother, she had to take it upon herself to earn for the family and joined the film industry as a child artist merely at the age of 3. While she was about to join the film industry a name change was initiated by her family.
“My father changed my name to Saroj when he put me in the movies so that his orthodox family would not know the truth about his little daughter working in films, which was not considered very respectable in those days,” Saroj khan told in an interview.
Early Days In The Film Industry
“I was in a man’s job, trying to get a foothold. And I didn’t give up,” Saroj Khan was heard saying in her Manipal University, Jaipur TEDx Talk in 2019 while talking about her journey as part of the male-dominant Indian film industry. Entering the industry as a child artist, Saroj was soon not only to mark her presence but also forge the way for the female choreographers.
“In my first film, I did not get to dance. I played the young Shama in the film Nazrana. I had to sit on a moon and sing. I started getting more offers and became very popular as a child artist,”-her adorable tryst with dance as a 3-year-old began like this.
At the age of 10, she joined one of the film industry’s dancing troupes for one-and-a-half years. And while she was performing as a background dancer, she was immediately noticed by accomplished classical dancer cum hard taskmaster Sohanlal.
As Saroj was excellent in learning the dance moves of everyone including that of the lead actors’, it was not difficult to recognize her dance-genius. She became Sohanlal’s assistant at the age of 13. “He would make me stand in one position for three hours,” she never failed to recognize her master’s contribution in her career.
“I choreographed my first song Nigahein Milane Ko Jee Chahta Hai from Dil Hi Toh Hai when I was 14. It was picturized on Nutan. PL Santoshi (filmmaker Raj Kumar Santoshi’s father) taught me how to join movements and make them dance steps,” she explained her initial steps in the industry as a choreographer. Since then the young Saroj was unstoppable.
She shared screen-time with Madhubala in the 1958-film Howrah Bridge dressed as a boy. As a bright, young, and charming girl, she shared a good rapport with her co-artistes and juggled well between school and shooting.
“We have nothing at home for Diwali and this payment will come only after a week. Shashi Kapoor gave me Rs.200 saying, “This is all I have on me”– she once asked Shashi Kapoor for a loan after finishing a group dance with him. She never got a chance to repay it to him.
“A model apprentice to dance master, she taught steps to Helen, Vyjayanthimala, and others, finally bagging her first break as an independent choreographer with Geeta Mera Naam (1974). She was 26”, writes Udita Jhunjhunwala. Later, Sri Devi starrer song ‘Hawa Hawai’ from the film Mr. India (1987) got her due recognition.
Awards, Achievements, and Recognition
The filmography of Saroj Khan’s career, with the experience of working in as many as 300 films, has been impeccable. Her collaboration with Madhuri Dixit brought both the actor-choreographer duo a special place in the industry. At the brink of Dixit’s early career, Saroj Khan choreographed ‘Ek Do Teen’ from the movie ‘Tezaab’ brought Madhuri back to the limelight.
“I composed Ek Do Teen in 25 minutes but Madhuri rehearsed for 17 days because she was not famous at that time; it was that song that made her famous”, Saroj Khan said. Making history, the song paved the way for the Filmfare introducing the best choreography category for the first time and Saroj Khan was its first recipient in 1989. The Khan-Dixit duo aced in a manner that for a time being Madhuri’s availability was correlated to Khan’s.
“Of the many actors I have choreographed, she is the only one with whom I could experiment. I have given her so many weird dance steps, but she did them with ease, and without complaints,” Khan said of Dixit. Even Saroj Khan’s last choreographed song ‘Tabah Ho Gaye’ from the 2019-film Kalank featured Madhuri in it.
“Saroj Khan was a recipient of three National Awards in Best Choreography category. She won it for ‘Dola Re Dola‘ from Devdas in 2002. Then she won it for all the songs from the 2006 Tamil movie Sringaram which also marked Aditi Rao Hydari’s debut in the language. The last National Award she won was for ‘Yeh Ishq Haaye‘ song from 2008 film Jab We Met and the track was picturized mainly on Kareena Kapoor Khan”, writes DNA India in one of its reports.
“She said, No, you move the camera this way and the dancers will come from this direction. What a visual sense! Everything was so fluid….”, Sanjay Leela Bhansali commented in the Tulli directed documentary regarding Khan’s command over the craft during the picturization of the ground-breaking song ‘Dola Re Dola’ with both Madhuri Dixit and Aishwariya Rai sharing the screen. “She’s like a school, an institution of how to shoot a dance. She’s dynamic,” he added.
She also bagged several Filmfare Awards for the movies like Chaalbaaz (1990), Beta (1993), Khalnayak (1994), Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (2000), Devdas (2003), Guru (2008) to name a few. She has been the recipient of the Nandi Award for choreographing the song ‘O Mariya’ from Chiranjeevi and Soundarya starrer Choodalani Vundi (1998).
In 2002, she had received the American Choreography Award in Outstanding Achievement in Feature Film for Aamir Khan starrer Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India. She also made several television appearances as the judge of popular Indian dance reality shows.
Upheavals In Personal Life
Despite accomplishing many heights professionally as a dancer cum choreographer, her personal life was mired with various difficult times. From a failing marriage to witnessing losses, it had never been smooth for her. Still, she never let her personal grief to meddle with her professional life.
“I was so much in love with my Guruji. If I saw another dancer with him, I would burn with jealousy”– the guru-shishya bonding between Saroj and her mentor B. Sohanlal soon turned into a conjugal one. At the age of 13, she was married to him while he was 41. She was unaware of his marital status then.
“I was barely 13, a schoolgirl when I married master Sohanlal. I did not know what marriage meant at that time. He just put a black thread around my neck one day and I thought I was married. He didn’t tell me that he was already married with four kids. I learned about his first wife only when I gave birth to my first child, my son Raju Khan, in 1963. I was 14 then, too young to comprehend or handle the complicated situation,” she spoke heavy-heartedly.
“In 1965, I gave birth to my second child, a daughter who died within eight months of birth. Around that time, Sohanlal and I parted ways as he refused to give my children his name. Towards the end of 1969, he approached me again to be his assistant. When I refused, he lodged a complaint against me with the Cine Dancer’s Association. I resigned myself and started working with him again. Around that time, he suffered a heart attack. I went to see him and there was that one night when I was with him. I conceived my daughter, Kuku. After that he completely disappeared from my life and settled in Madras,” she added.
As a single mother to both her kids, she used to yearn for their company at the end of her busy shooting schedule. Almost ten-years after her separation with Sohanlal, in 1975 she remarried Sardar Roshan Khan, a businessman by profession. Two-years after marriage she left the industry, only to return in 1980.
“In 1977, I left the film industry. I went to Dubai. I was 29. I stayed there for three years. I was looking after my brother and sisters and also my husband’s first wife’s son. I placed them all in good jobs and then returned. None of them were in the film industry because when my father was dying, he made me promise that I would not let my brother and sisters join the film industry. In 1980, when I came back, Zarina Wahab had heard about me so she called me for her film Jazbaat. It was Raj Babbar’s first film”, she recalled.
She lost her 42-year-old daughter Kuku (Hina Khan) to acute liver failure in 2011 after her prolonged ailment, which left her devastated. She has been a patient of severe diabetes and related illness. On her last Instagram post dated June 14, before getting hospitalized on June 17 due to her deteriorating health condition, the veteran mourned actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s untimely demise.
The passing of the veteran has been mourned by the film personalities and the film lovers alike. “I’m devastated by the loss of my friend and guru, Saroj Khan. Will always be grateful for her work in helping me reach my full potential in dance. The world has lost an amazingly talented person. I will miss you,” actor Madhuri Dixit Nene took to Twitter expressing her condolences.
“Saroj Khan has broken every rule in the choreography book. She doesn’t care about glamour… She is brazen, bold, uncompromising, and often, quite rude and ruthless. She has been a single mother for most of her life. She is also famous, successful and rich in the cut-throat, male-dominated world of Indian cinema”, wrote film scholar Shoma A Chaterji.
Though the person Saroj Khan may have gone physically, the glimpses of her talent are going to thrive in the history of Indian cinema for the days to come. An inspiration to many, the legacy of Saroj Khan’s flaring dance and vivacious grace are going to be difficult to maintain for the upcoming generations of Indian choreographers.