One of Bollywood’s most revered choreographers, Saroj Khan, was known for sharing her insights and anecdotes with warmth and humor. A vintage interview of hers is now going viral, in which she fondly recalls the time Sanjay Dutt impressed her while dancing with Madhuri Dixit in Thanedaar (1990) for the iconic song ‘Tamma Tamma Loge.’In her old conversation with Lehren Retro, the late choreographer, Saroj explained her special joy in working with actors who were not trained dancers. “Actually, mazza yeh aataa hai (the real fun is) when non-dancers, who people have rejected for their dancing, surprise you on the floor. With professionals like Govinda, Akshay Kumar, or Aamir Khan, they already dance very well. But making Sanjay Dutt or Saif Ali Khan dance, that’s where the real fun was,” she said.Saroj revealed she had made it a condition to choreograph ‘Tamma Tamma Loge’ only if Sanjay rehearsed before the final shoot. “When we were doing ‘Tamma Tamma,’ I had said, ‘I’ll do this song if Sanjay Dutt rehearses,’” she recounted. The film’s makers even tried to prank her by claiming that Sanjay hadn’t practiced enough. “They came back after a month and said, ‘Sanjay has not rehearsed.’ He was busy with bodybuilding and shoots, so he could only practice the mukhda (chorus),” Saroj recalled, admitting she was initially furious. However, when she saw Sanjay perform, she was blown away. “I told him, ‘Chalo naach ke bataao (come on, dance and show me), do as much as you know. As soon as the music played, this boy danced from beginning to end. I literally fell off my chair in surprise. They had planned to prank me, but he was fabulous on set.”Not just her legendary choreography, but Saroj Khan’s stories also remind her fans of her explicit reverence for stars who “gave it their all.” Her recounting that the spirit of its dancing Rajnikanth was well captured, but that Sanjay Dutt epitomizes how the presence of spirit could illuminate for non-dancers in sequences like ‘Tamma Tamma Loge’ will forever remain memorable.
