The much-loved film My Name Is Khan (2010) completed 15 years on February 12. It starred Shah Rukh Khan in an award-worthy role of a man with Asperger’s Syndrome who travels across the length and breadth of the USA to meet the President and tell him that “My Name Is Khan And I Am Not A Terrorist”. Karan Johar switched gears with this film and the move was quite appreciated as well. In an exclusive interview with , Niranjan Iyengar, the lyricist and one of the dialogue writers on My Name Is Khan, spoke about his experience and a lot more.

15 Years of My Name Is Khan EXCLUSIVE: Writer Niranjan Iyengar opens up on whether a film like this can be made in today’s times; also reveals, “Initially, I felt Shah Rukh Khan’s physical gestures were exaggerated but when I saw the scenes, I realized he was BRILLIANT”

I have always been writing with Karan and have also written a book, ‘The Making of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’. My Name Is Khan came after Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006). Initially, Karan was going to write the dialogues himself and at some point, I came on board. What was surprising in My Name Is Khan was me writing the lyrics. I had never been a lyricist and had never written Hindi poetry.

Initially, the idea was to get some senior lyricist to write the songs. Meanwhile, I used to always attend his music sittings, as I was deeply interested in music. That was a time when I was also interested in sufiyana kalams and qawwalis and also people like Abida Parveen, Pathanay Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan etc. When ‘Sajda’ was being composed, I wrote its dummy lyrics. These are the lyrics written at the time of the composition just to understand the meter. However, Shankar and Karan’s mother, Hiroo Johar, heard it and liked my lyrics a lot.

Then, I also wrote ‘Noor-E-Khuda’ and ‘Tere Naina’ before I was officially declared the lyricist of the film after which I wrote ‘Allah Hi Rahem’ and ‘Rang De’. While I was working on My Name Is Khan, I was also asked to come on board for Kurbaan (2009) as a lyricist. For that film, I wrote ‘Shukran Allah’, ‘Dua’, ‘Rasiya’ and the title track. I worked on both films parallelly.

All the songs came very easily to me. Since I was doing it for the first time, I was very enthusiastic. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are great forces to work with. For me, to do my first work as a lyricist with them was great as I was trained right at the peak. And honestly, the process was easy as I didn’t know what I was doing! I was only following the theme as I was also a part of the dialogues and screenplay. I was even a part of the shoot. Hence, everything was so organic that I didn’t feel any effort at all.

No. That came with the screenplay, written by Shibani Bathija and Karan. It was also the theme of the film and hence, it was always there.

It’s my favourite Karan Johar film, in my opinion. As a director, he was 10 on 10 His films are usually character-based and often focus on relationships and families. My Name Is Khan had a much larger canvas. It dealt with social issues. It was also about mental health issues, which we talk about so actively now. In 2010, he made a film centring on a character who has Asperger’s Syndrome. It was very unusual. Of course, the trademark Karan Johar style emotions are filled in every frame. But apart from that, it was about a lot of other things which I was excited to see Karan exploring.

I was there throughout the shoot. I guess I wasn’t there for the shoot of a couple of songs but during the talkie portions, I was present every day. We shot largely around San Francisco and Los Angeles. Also, we were writing as we were shooting. That is the process that we follow with Karan. A lot of things change in the writing once we reach the location and when we interact with the actors. The way the previous scene was shot led to some changes in the following scene as well.

Shah Rukh nailed it beautifully. Initially, I felt that his physical gestures were slightly exaggerated. But when I saw the scenes, I realized he was brilliant. Shah Rukh has the ability to slip into any role. Even in the one scene in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016), he was so iconic! In My Name Is Khan, we were constantly watching him play with the role within the scene and add little things like the way he spoke and that made for a wonderful experience.

Yes, and that was also quite appreciated as well. This American version was released much later than the Hindi version. The edit took long as we had to cut down on the length. We had to make it into a two-hour film while the run time of the original film was over 2 hours and 40 minutes.

My Name Is Khan can’t be made now. Your thoughts?
When you watch the film, you’ll realize that there’s nothing controversial about it. So, I don’t think it’ll cause a problem as it speaks to humanity. It was not about politics, ideology etc. There’s a possibility that in today’s world, the noise that is made about a film like this is much more. But once the film releases, they’d realize that it’s harmless and not making any controversial stand. It is not taking sides too and it’s just saying that we have to be humans.

In this era of re-releases, can we expect My Name Is Khan to be back on the big screen?
I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Karan about it. He’s the one who makes these decisions. I am quite certain that films like My Name Is Khan, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham etc. are evergreen films. Whenever they are released, they’ll do well. They are never going to die and they are going to be a part of our culture forever.

Also Read: 15 Years of My Name Is Khan EXCLUSIVE: Niranjan Iyengar recalls the pre-release controversy: “Karan Johar, Shah Rukh Khan were very stressed; Maharashtra government had assured us that no one can stop its release

More Pages: My Name Is Khan Box Office Collection , My Name Is Khan Movie Review

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