Bunty aur Babli turns 20: Vaibhavi Merchant recalls ‘Kajra Re’ shoot with Abhishek, Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai

As Shaad Ali's 2005 blockbuster Bunty Aur Babli marked its 20th year on Tuesday, May 27, choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant recalled the shoot for the iconic item song “Kajra Re” featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, and Abhishek Bachchan.

Kajra Re is a masterpiece, featuring Gulzar's lyrics and Shankar-Ehsan-Loy's composition, beautifully pieced together in Alisha Chinai's voice.

In an interview with the Indian Express SCREEN, Vaibhavi shared Kajra Re was thought to be a “slow-burn,” a fusion of when “qawwali-meets-mujra”.

However, she said, Aditya Chopra thought the song was “very rooted” and had the perfect ingredients for a mass song. “He had the vision to predict it would be a chartbuster,” she said.

The choreographer then recalled Aditya saying, “This is going to be a song revered for a long time. It’s going to be extremely popular and going to go down in history.”

The Kajra Re trio

Vaibhavi Merchant said Kajra Re was the first song of the father-son duo, Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan, together. It was also a comeback for Aishwarya Rai, who was on a sabbatical before it.

Vaibhavi shared that on set, Amitabh Bachchan is not a father. “There are no personal equations coming in the way. He’s a thorough professional. He’d remain in character.”

However, she said Abhishek has a different temperament on set. “He’s all about fun and pranks.” While Aishwarya came back with a different energy.

“You had three different characters working together in the song.”

“So, all the fun and masti in the song comes from Abhishek, the ada comes from Aish, and of course, the swag, style, and let-me-show-you-how-it's-done business comes from Big B,” she told SCREEN.

‘Never imagined…’: Vaibhavi Merchant on Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan's wedding

Vaibhavi Merchant shared with SCREEN that she never had imagined that the wedding of Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan would be an outcome of this song.

“Nobody thought of it then. I never imagined this as the outcome of that moment. They were all thorough professionals,” she said.

However, she said it isn't the first time the actors on her set have turned to lovers.

“This is my story with a lot of actors, who start out as friends and turn into lovers on my set. I’m happy these divine interventions do happen, and I get to be a part of them,” Vaibhavi shared, joking that she could even write a book on this.