Javed Akhtar charges Rs 25 lacs for one song of Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Dunki’, creates history

Shah Rukh Khan and Rajkumar Hirani’s Dunki has some adorable and melodious songs, and one such haunting track is Nikle The Kabhi Hum Ghar Se, which comes right towards the end. The song is penned by veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar. And trade analyst and film critic Komal Nahta in his magazine Film Information revealed Akhtar charged Rs 25 lacs to pen it, thus creating history of sorts.

At the recent stage show Main Koi Aisa Geet Gaaon, Akhtar revealed how he came on board for the SRK-starrer. “I usually don’t write just one track in the film. Raju Hirani saab asked me to write lyrics of just one song. I declined but he insisted. He said, ‘Yeh gaana aapke alawa koi nahin likh sakta’. I kept unreasonable terms in front of him (hoping that he’d be discouraged,” said the lyricist.

Javed Akhtar continued, “Without batting an eyelid, he agreed to those terms. Yeh mera kamaal nahin hai. Yeh kamaal Raju Hirani ka hai. Jiske peeche 5 super-duper hit films thi, usko samaj thi ki yeh gaana mujhe iss aadmi se milega. Ego was not governing him. His love for his film was governing him. Hats off to him!”

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Raju Hirani revealed about penning a love story for the first time. “With SRK being there as the lead, I don’t think you can avoid it. It just happened. Initially it was all about making a film on people wanting to go there. But as it started evolving somewhere down the line it became a love story because we had to show that span of 25 years and what happens to people when they get separated. So, it just became a love story, but that was not the intention,” said the filmmaker.