Throwback Thursday: Did You Know? 'Maula Mere' Song Was Originally Not Made For 'Chak De! India'

While ‘Chak De! India’ gave us one of Shah Rukh Khan’s best performances, and the movie also gave us some goosebumps-inducing songs. The album of the movie stands as one of the best albums that has been produced in Bollywood. The songs have just the right mix of emotions that tug at your heart. One of these songs is ‘Maula Mere.’

‘Maula Mere’ starts playing when the team wins the match and Shah Rukh Khan is looking at the flag. During the song, he goes to his old home. It would not be far-fetched to assume that the song has not made all of us emotional. But did you know that the ‘Maula Mere’ was not originally written for ‘Chak De! India’?

In an interview, Salim Merchant revealed that the song was originally written for a Nagesh Kukunoor film. But the director had rejected the song because he thought it was too sad. Speaking to Bollywood Hungama, the music composer revealed that they had another background score in place for the moment when Shah Rukh Khan looked at the flag in ‘Chak De! India.’ However, Yash Chopra insisted that they add a song there.

Salim Merchant said, “That part when Shah Rukh looks at the tiranga and he gets teary-eyed, that part is very important. For that part, there was a very good background score. But Yash ji said, ‘There has to be a song here.’ The release was just one week away and on that same day, we watched the film and came back to the studio. We had a song, which we made for the film ‘Dor’. But Nagesh did not like this song and said, ‘It is very sad.’ He wanted some positive song for a particular sequence starring Gul Panag and Ayesha Takia.”

The musician revealed that the song was ready by two in the morning, and it was added to the movie. He mentioned, “It is a timeless song.” And we can all agree with this sentiment.

'Maula Mere’ was penned by Jaideep Sahni and has been sung by Krishna and Salim Merchant. The music was composed by Salim-Sulaiman.