The Making of the Music of VEER-ZAARA (2004)
20 May 2011


The music of Veer-Zaara was a unique endeavour probably for the first time ever in the world of music.

Many tunes made by Madan Mohanji in his 25 year career from 1950 to 1975, remained unused for many reasons... if it was a tune made for a specific song for a film, the film may have been shelved, or the composer himself with the director may have opted for an alternative tune for situational reasons, and thus the tune with dummy words meant for the specific song remained unused.

Often, a tune struck Madanji, but had no immediate use and he wished to keep it for future use... he either just hummed the tune, played it on harmonium or piano, or just sang some dummy words as they struck him. In those days the facilities to record one's voice spontaneously did not easily exist. So, often, if a tune struck Madanji when he was out, he would try and store it in his memory till he could somehow reach his music room and record it on a handy spool, most often, in the hurry, erasing an earlier lot. Thus, many such tunes have been lost.

After his untimely demise in 1975, some of these were found on his spools, but not in good condition, some half erased, some overlapping each other, and more than anything else, the spools themselves had been damaged over time.

Veer-Zaara‘s soundtrack was the result of using almost 30 of such tunes that were located, each composed in a different time span, under varied circumstances, each with a unique story. Nine of these tunes became the melodies for the songs in the film, two were used as songs exclusively for the CD, while others were used as interludes in the songs as well as themes for the background score.

Javed Akhtar wrote the lyrics to the selected tunes and Lataji, Jagjit Singh, Roopkumar Rathod, Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam, Gurdas Mann, Ahmed and Mohd. Hussain lent their voices to these songs.

Along with the Veer-Zaara audio CD, a special CD called the Making Of The Music was also released which featured excerpts of Madanji's original compositions, fused with the final recordings, to demonstrate the process of recreation to suit the requirement of Veer-Zaara situations. Some earlier comments in Madanji’s voice were also added for this unique experiment, 30 years after he passed away.

The music of Veer-Zaara received much appreciation, won many awards. CDs of the background score as well as instrumentals of the songs were also made.

In this 26 minute video presentation, we have added visuals from the recordings and the film for music lovers to experience how this soundtrack was created over a two year dedicated effort by a very committed team.

Also Check:

  • "A Dream Fulfilled..." – Son Sanjeev Kohli on VEER-ZAARA's Music