Vivek Agnihotri convinced Javed Akhtar to keep ‘Billo Rani’: ‘Different political ideologies but we respect each other’

Vivek Agnihotri who’s in the news lately for his film ‘The Bengal Files’ is known for a variety of movies like ‘The Tashkent Files’ (2019), ‘The Kashmir Files’ (2022), and ‘The Vaccine War’ (2023), and also conventional Bollywood films such as ‘Chocolate’ (2005), ‘Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal’ (2007), ‘Hate Story’ (2014), and ‘Zid’ (2014). These earlier films featured some memorable songs, including ‘Halka Halka Sa Yeh Sama’ from Chocolate and ‘Billo Rani’ from ‘Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal’. Agnihotri recently shared an anecdote about the latter song, revealing he had to persuade lyricist Javed Akhtar to keep the title phrase ‘Billo Rani’ in the track, which was composed by Pritam and sung by Anand Raj Anand and Richa Sharma. The song was filmed on Bipasha Basu, John Abraham, and Arshad Warsi. "I insisted on keeping the term 'Billo Rani' in the song. But Javed sahab wasn’t convinced.

Finally, we kept the term ‘Billo Rani’, and he wrote great lyrics for the rest of the song," Agnihotri recalled in an interview with Mashable. He noted that while their political ideologies clash today, they maintain a deep mutual respect. "When it’s between two philosophical minds, there can’t be a debate, only a discussion.

I get along really well with Javed sahab. We respect each other deeply. He’s one of the best thinkers we have today in India.

Yes, our political ideologies don’t match too much, but otherwise I have deep respect for him in terms of life ideology,” he added. Agnihotri's admiration for Akhtar isn't new. In a 2022 interview on The Cārvāka Podcast, he praised the bhajan “Radha Kaise Na Jale” from Ashutosh Gowariker’s 2001 film Lagaan, for which Akhtar was the lyricist. "Even a man like Javed Akhtar, the bhajans he wrote for Lagaan were pure Hindi.

“Madhuban mein Radha.” there is not a single Urdu word in it. Because these were well-read, intelligent people who were tied to the roots of India.

He may be a Communist, he may fight against the right-wing, it doesn’t matter," Agnihotri stated. He also applauded Akhtar’s screenwriting work with Salim Khan in the 1970s and 80s, which helped popularise Amitabh Bachchan's "Angry Young Man" persona. Agnihotri argued that their characters were rooted in real-world struggles, a stark contrast to modern Bollywood films.

“All of Javed Akhtar’s heroes, all of them were either a labourer’s son, a teacher’s son and he would fight a dacoit or a mill owner or a zamindar.

He would fight a corrupt police inspector or corrupt MLA. In which movie of recent times would you find MLAs, MPs, Police inspectors, IAS officers as the villains? It’s as if India has no issues at all. The only issues are whether you are sleeping with this person or that person. That’s where they have brought Bollywood,” the director explained.