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Today is the 73rd birth anniversary of Bollywood’s well-known choreographer Saroj Khan. Born to Kishanchand Sandhu and Noni Singh, Saroj’s real name was Nirmala Nagpal. He was born on November 22, 1948. After the partition, Saroj’s family moved to India from Pakistan. Saroj started her career as a child artist at the age of just 3 with the film ‘Najrana’.
Saroj’s dance steps seen in two thousand songs
Saroj Khan choreographed about two thousand songs in a career spanning 40 years. He also won the National Award thrice. Saroj Khan contributed in bringing out new talents as a judge in many reality shows like ‘Nach Baliye’, ‘Ustadon Ke Ustaad’, ‘Nachle Way with Saroj Khan’, ‘Boogie-Woogie’, ‘Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa’.
When Saroj got married suddenly at the age of 13
Saroj Khan converted to Islam at the age of 13 and married 43-year-old dance master B Sohanlal. This was the second marriage of Sohanlal who was almost 30 years older than Saroj. He was already the father of four children. In an interview, Saroj had told that at the age of 13, she used to go to school and did not know the meaning of marriage. One day her dance master Sohanlal had tied a black thread around her neck, on doing so Saroj felt that she was married.
Husband hid the matter of being already married
Saroj married Sohanlal at the age of going to school. At that time she did not know that Sohanlal was already married and father of 4 children. Saroj came to know about his first wife in 1963, when their son Raju Khan was born. In 1965, their second child was born, who passed away after 8 months. When Sohanlal refused to give his name to Saroj’s two children, they parted ways. After a few years, Sohanlal had a heart attack, then Saroj came close to him. During this, Saroj gave birth to daughter Kuku. After the birth of the daughter, Sohanlal had disappeared from Saroj’s life and Saroj raised both the children alone.
The first film was ‘Geeta Mera Naam’
The first film in 1974 was ‘Geeta Mera Naam’, choreographed by Saroj Khan. Sadhana was in the lead role in this film. His performance in Sridevi’s Hawa-Hawai (1987) in the film ‘Mr India’ and a two-three dance number featuring Madhuri in ‘Tezaab’ in 1988 were huge hits. His most hit dance numbers are the Madhuri-Aishwarya Wala Dola Re Dola from the 1992 film ‘Beta’ and the Madhuri-Aishwarya Wala Dola Re Dola from the 2002 film ‘Devdas’.
Taught everyone dance from Sadhna to Kareena
All the big Bollywood actresses were seen dancing under his direction. Saroj Khan taught dance to actresses like Sadhna, Vyjayanthimala, Kumkum, Helen, Sharmila Tagore, Mala Sinha, Waheeda Rehman, Zeenat Aman to Rekha, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Karisma, Urmila Tagore, Aishwarya Rai, Kareena Kapoor and Sunny Leone. Madhuri was his favorite star. He also taught dance steps to many South actresses.
last film with madhuri dixit
Saroj Khan last choreographed the song for Karan Johar’s multistarrer film ‘Kalank’ in April 2019. Its words were ‘devastated’. His favorite actress Madhuri Dixit was also seen in this song. He passed away on July 3, 2020.