#20yearsofVeerZaara: Interesting tale of how YRF used old compositions of Madan Mohan

Yash Chopra-helmed romantic saga Veer Zaara completed 20 years of its release recently. The movie starring Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, and Rani Mukerji had melodious songs that were composed by none other than legendary music director Madan Mohan. Although Veer Zaara was released in 2004, almost three decades after the death of the famous music director, his compositions still found their way into the movie surprising many.

Yash Chopra was looking for musical scores that resembled old types of music, as the movie also had a backdrop covering more than two decades ago. Despite working with various music directors of those times, Yashji was not satisfied with the tunes. At that time, he got a chance to meet Sanjeev Kohli, the son of Madan Mohan, who told the famous director that his father had many unused and rejected compositions.

When Yash Chopra and his son Aditya heard these compositions they immediately decided to use them for Veer Zaara. In the book, “Veer Zaara, The Memoirs Of A Love Legend” Sanjeev Kohli recounted this story saying, “Veer-Zaara for me was the realisation of a dream that I could never believe would ever come true. When my father, the late composer Madan Mohan, passed away in 1975, he was only 51 years old. A lot of music was still to be created, many tunes yet to be shared with the world, a lot yet to be achieved."

Two decades ago, we witnessed a love that defied all odds and stood the test of time... the legendary story of Veer-Zaara will echo forever... ♥️
Celebrating #20YearsOfVeerZaara pic.twitter.com/VBGglMmh6L

— Yash Raj Films (@yrf) November 12, 2024

Kohli has said that his father Madan Mohan was a famous composer but never got the opportunity to work for big banners or big stars and the popular awards always eluded the maestro. All these things hurt Madanji deeply. But decades later, his rejected and unused compositions became huge hits and were used for the biggest superstar of that time Shah Rukh Khan by the biggest production house YRF.

Lata Mangeshkar was always the first choice for Madan Mohan for his songs. But during the making of Veer Zaara, she was past her prime. The 75-year-old legendary singer was also battling health issues at that time but Yashji was adamant that only Lataji would sing songs for the movie.

Not only SRK, but even big superstars Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini danced to the tunes of Madan Mohan in Veer Zaara which won many awards that year fulfilling the wish of the late legendary music composer.