Mumbai, Aug 14 (IANS) Veteran actress Hema Malini has shared that she didn’t do any rehearsal for the song ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ from the iconic film ‘Sholay’.

The actress spoke with IANS, ahead of the 50th anniversary of the film, and said that the song demanded less of dance and more of an act.

Talking about the same, she told IANS, “No rehearsal at all. It is more of an act, it’s a scene. Scene and dance. But there was no rehearsal. Whatever was needed, we used to do on the spot. As per the situation, as per the sequence, what the director is planning, we would do it. It was nothing difficult to do, but it took at least 15 days to picturise the song”.

The actress also spoke about how she was offered the film. Back in the day, the film industry didn’t have bound scripts, the scenes were written and shot in real time.

She said, “No, back in the day, when we would accept a film, the director would come and narrate the story to us. If I like it, I would accept it. If I didn’t want to do it, I would say ‘No’. So when ‘Sholay’ was offered to me, after making ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’, the same director, Ramesh Sippy told me, ‘So many other characters are there and you are also one of them’. So I was feeling a little disappointed, thinking, ‘Why only small role for me? Why not a bigger role?’”.

However, the actress was informed by the director that her role will have a big impact, and insisted that she accept the role.

She further mentioned, “I had faith in him. So I said, ‘Okay, I will do it’. The first day of the shooting, when we went, he told me that it is different than what you have done in all these years”.

“I said, ‘Is it just like a Geeta’s role in Seeta Aur Geeta?’. He said, ‘That was different, this is different, but similar’. And then they told me how the dialogue I’ll be speaking and all that. And then because it’s a long dialogue, I have to speak continuously, nonstop. So that was the beauty of the whole character. It was very witty and I was the only one who was giving relief in the film”, she added.

‘Sholay’ is set to clock 50 years of its release on Friday.

–IANS

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