When Saroj Khan asked Rekha if she was ‘allergic’ to her: ‘I said kuch toh gadbad hai…’

Filmmaker KR Reddy’s 1990 multi-starrer Sheshnaag was billed as a fantasy film, but the problems the team faced in the mounting of its dance track was rooted in reality: A cinema icon, a celebrated choreographer and rising tension between them.
Late choreographer Saroj Khan was entrusted with the responsibility of designing a dance sequence for Rekha in the film, which also starred Jeetendra, Madhavi and Rishi Kapoor. The unit was racing against the time to film the number but Rekha, according to Khan, was not giving them dates.
“The producer had given us very little time, we had three days of rehearsals. My group and I worked round the clock to compose (its choreography) and then requested the producer to send Rekha ji as it was a difficult dance. But she didn’t come. I think either she was not well or had some shoots, as far as I know, she had shoots,” Saroj Khan had said in an interview to Lehren.
When the shoot day arrived, Rekha was present. But Khan was in for a shock when the star requested to cancel the shoot as she was under the weather. Sensing a pattern, Saroj Khan confronted her to tell her the truth. “The day she came, she was just wearing makeup, not her costume. She was sitting in her car and I went to meet her.

“She asked to cancel the shoot citing her ill health. I told her, ‘Rekha ji, I think you are allergic to me. I call you for rehearsals, you don’t come. You come for shoot, but say that you are not well. You can talk to the producer and change the dance masters, tell them that you don’t want to work with me. Because kuch toh gadbad hai.’”
Saroj Khan recalled that after her statement, Rekha was in tears. “Suddenly she turned her face and when she looked back, there were tears in her eyes. I told her that I didn’t say anything wrong to her, but felt that she should shoot today. She said, ‘I will definitely shoot today’ and went to get ready.”
Shortly after, Khan said Rekha’s secretary asked her if she had said anything to the actor “because she was crying away.” The choreographer met Rekha again, when she told her, ‘I respect you a lot but you told me that I don’t love your work.’
“To which I corrected her and said, I just felt like that because everyone has got their own favourites. Govinda calls Chinni Prakash because he likes him, his style suits him. If Dimple Kapadia calls Chinni Prakash, I should not mind it, just because she is my student does not mean she has to call me.”

Similarly, Khan continued, that she teams up with Sridevi routinely as the star likes him, so if Rekha was more comfortable with someone else, she should work with them, but not at the expense of shoot delays. Khan said Rekha heard everything and told that wasn’t the case but “I will do this song and show you how I can dance.”
“In that anger and spirit, the dance came out beautifully. She danced very well and did all all the movements, without changing anything. May be it was the tension between us, but she did the best,” the choreographer added.
However, the tension was eventually resolved and Rekha and Saroj Khan were on amicable terms later. At an awards show in 2019, Rekha kneeled in front of the choreographer as she saw her sitting with her family. The actor also met all her family members before she went to her seat at the do.
Saroj Khan, one of the most celebrated choreographers of the Hindi film industry, died in 2020 aged 71. She was known for iconic dance numbers featuring Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.