Farah Khan Says She Shot Pehla Nasha Thrice Heroines Kept Changing

“Pehla Nasha” from the film Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar remains one of those timeless songs that audiences continue to revisit decades later. The track also marked the first song choreographed by Farah Khan, a feat for which she continues to receive praise even today. Recently, the filmmaker-choreographer shared an interesting behind-the-scenes story about the song in her latest vlog while chatting with actors Vedang Raina and Sharvari.

Recalling her experience of filming the iconic track, Farah said, “We had no monitors, we had no microphones, we shot the song in 1990, the film came in 1992. I reshot the song thrice with three different heroines. They kept changing until finally Ayesha Jhulka came on board and we shot with her in 1992 January.”

Years earlier, filmmaker Mansoor Khan had revealed that Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar stemmed from his own frustration and anger after returning to India following five years of studying in the United States, where he felt he had simply “wasted” his father’s money. In an interview with Zoom, he said, “Everybody thinks I wrote JJWS after seeing Peter Yates’ Breaking Away. That’s not true. Right from 1981 on, I wanted to make a film about a guy who is a loser who finally gets his groove. That’s what had happened to me. I had gone to college for five years in the US and wasted my father’s money. I came back angry and defensive. The whole world was my enemy at that time (laughs). JJWS was born of my anger at that time.”

Mansoor also revealed that actress Nagma, and not Pooja Bedi, was originally supposed to star in the film. However, according to him, Nagma left the project just four days before filming was set to begin because she felt it was not a leading role. “I had told her right from the beginning that she was not the heroine. I don’t want to blame her, but the least she could have done was to inform me. You can’t hang up on me when I’m planning a forty-day outdoor schedule. Later, of course, she came to me and said it was the biggest mistake of her life.”