Veteran actor Manoj Kumar, who has spent over five decades in the film industry and has given many Bollywood films including ‘Upkar’, and ‘Roti Kapada Aur Makaan’, says that the iconic song ‘Lag Ja Galey’ from his another hit film ‘Woh Kaun Thi’ was initially rejected by director Raj Khosla.

Recalling the experience of working on ‘Woh Kaun Thi’ and talking about the track, he told Bollywood Hungama, “Do you know, one of the film’s most iconic songs ‘Lag Ja Gale’ was initially rejected by the director Raj Khosla. I remember the music composer Madan Mohan Saab, a very sensitive artiste, was shattered. He came to complain, ‘Manoj Bhai, look at the composition that your director has rejected.’ I heard the song and I immediately knew its potential.”

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Manoj Kumar further says that he immediately took the song back to Raj Khosla and made him hear.

“At the end of the song, he got up quietly and went out of the room to get his chappals back inside and began hitting himself with it. Madan Mohan and I were aghast. ‘Yeh aap kya kar rahein hain?’ Raj said he was hitting himself for being such a fool to reject a composition like ‘Lag Ja Gale’. I am glad the producer Prernaa Arora has taken the rights of two of the songs ‘Lag Ja Gale’ and ‘Naina Barse’. I feel the other songs in Woh Kaun Thi like ‘Chhodkar Tere Pyar Ka Daman’, ‘Aap Kyon Roye’ and ‘Shokh Nazar Ki Bijliyaan’ are equally iconic,” he added.

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The senior actor also says that he wrote some of the dialogues and scenes in ‘Woh Kaun Thi’. However, he didn’t take credit for those.

“Arey yaar. It didn’t matter. I didn’t do it for the name. I did it to improve the film. During those days we worked on every film like a family. Sadhana, Raj Khosla, Madan Mohan and I were one family during Woh Kaun Thi. We didn’t think about who should get credit or not. We worked like a team of cooks in a kitchen putting together the best meal possible,” he said.

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He also says he would be happy to write the new version of the film.