Rahman stunning take on his song Khwaja Mere Khwaja

Rahman on Khwaja Mere Khwaja. Movie lovers cannot forget the song Khwaja Mere Khwaja from the hit film Jodha Akbar which starred Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan under the direction of Ashutosh Gowariker.

The song turned out to be one of the chartbusters and is still the most listened song. Now Rahman said that the song was never meant for Jodha Akbar. He said “I’d gone to Ajmer. One of the Khadims there said, ‘Why don’t you do a song on Khwaja? You’re not doing one. You’ve done ‘Piya Haji Ali’ (from Khalid Mohamed’s 2000 action thriller Fiza).’ I said, ‘I don’t know. I’m not getting it. Why don’t you pray I should get it?,'”

A few months later, while flying to Australia, Rahman found himself struggling with the melody for a romantic number. “I wasn’t getting the tune right," he recalled. “So I tried experimenting with it as a song dedicated to Khwaja. I recorded the full track and asked lyricist Kashif to complete it. A year later, Ashutosh Gowariker came to me with Jodhaa Akbar."

He added Gowariker explained a sequence in Jodhaa Akbar where Emperor Akbar, played by Hrithik Roshan, visits the Ajmer Dargah. “I said, ‘Wait, I have a song!’ But he told me he didn’t want a full song — just two lines. I told him it’s a complete composition," Rahman laughed.

When Gowariker heard Khwaja Mere Khwaja, he was moved. “He held my hands and kept saying, ‘Please give this song to me.’ I said, ‘Okay, but you can’t change anything.’ And then, two years later, I got the Oscars," Rahman smiled, calling the song “Khwaja’s blessings."