Shekhar Ravjiani reveals that the idea of ‘Dard-E-Disco’ came from Bhushan Kumar: “He told us, ‘Do tarah ka music chalta hai – dard wala aur dance wala’!”

By Fenil Seta -

April 28, 2025 - 2:00 PM IST

Shekhar Ravjiani went down memory lane and talked about his memorable experiences in the fourth episode of The Filmy Hustle, hosted by distributor-exhibitor Akshaye Rathi. Shekhar revealed how the idea of ‘Dard-E-Disco’, the chartbuster song from Om Shanti Om (2007), featuring a shirtless Shah Rukh Khan, came from none other than Bhushan Kumar of T-Series.

Shekhar Ravjiani reveals that the idea of ‘Dard-E-Disco’ came from Bhushan Kumar: “He told us, ‘Do tarah ka music chalta hai – dard wala aur dance wala’!”

Shekhar said, “Sonu Nigam acted in the film Love In Nepal (2004) and he wanted us to do one song. We were told to go to Bhushan ji’s office and present him with the song. Sameer saab had also come along. It was a very unique experience. I remember Bhushan ji made an interesting observation in this meeting. He said, ‘Do tarah ka music chalta hai – dard wala aur dance wala’! Bhushan was absolutely right about it.”

He added, “I said this to Farah Khan. That’s where she got the idea of the song ‘Dard-E-Disco’ in Om Shanti Om! So, the idea of ‘Dard-E-Disco’ came actually from Bhushan ji”

Shekhar Ravjiani also appealed for a better music scenario. He remarked, “There’s this constant doubt on what to make and what not to make. The artists are wondering, ‘Kaunsi film chal rahi hai aur kaunsi film nahin chal rahi hai?’, ‘Kaunsa gaana chal raha hai aur kaunsa gaana nahin chal raha hai’?. This is disturbing. This scenario didn’t exist earlier. Before, there was freedom of expression. That freedom of expression needs to come back again, and studios need to support that. The producers also need to do the same. Once that happens, we’ll have great films coming up and great music coming up. But that freedom needs to return.”

He added, “Right now, there’s too much on the line for a lot of people. There’s a slight imbalance in the whole business. It’ll be balanced once something comes and sets the mood correctly for the business. I feel we need more love stories and more love songs. We need a variety of songs in a film. We need one voice for the entire soundtrack; one composer for the entire soundtrack.”

Shekhar Ravjiani continued, “The filmmakers often take one song each from a particular composer. That will continue to happen and sometimes, it works. For instance, Animal (2023) had a curation of songs from diverse composers, and it worked. But I still want to see that time again when people would make memories out of a soundtrack.”

Also Read: Shekhar Ravjiani reveals how Reels culture gave songs a second life and turned them into MONSTROUS hits: “‘Hook Up’ from Student Of The Year 2 is one of my TOP 3 most consumed songs EVER; I was like, ‘How did that happen?'”