We were ready for criticism: Ahmed Khan on 'Ek Do Teen'

Mumbai: "Baaghi 2" director Ahmed Khan says the team was ready for criticism from the word go when they decided to recreate the chartbuster "Ek do teen" for their film.

The original song was picturised on Madhuri Dixit and the new version features Jacqueline Fernandez. The reworked version has been a topic of much discussion on social media.

Given that Ahmed is a choreographer himself, asked if he is creatively satisfied with the video, he told IANS: "Firstly, I did not choreograph the song. It has been done by the great dancer-choreographer Ganesh Acharya. I did not interfere with his work. 

"Having said that, from the moment we zeroed down on the song ‘Ek Do Teen', we were ready for the criticism.

"I did not attend any rehearsal of the song, I did not show my power of being the director when the song was choreographed. I know you would be thinking that as a director I green-lit the final take. But we must not forget that it is an experiment... All feedback of such work cannot be positive. We are here to take the praise and bashing."

"Ek do teen" became a rage when it first featured in the 1988 film "Teezab", directed by N Chandra. The song was then choreographed by Saroj Khan.

Emphasising the reason behind recreating the song, Ahmed said: "The intention behind recreating any song is to revisit the memory of some of the cult classics like this, and keeping the new generation connect with it.

"Our youngsters have a strong connection with the lead pair of the film, Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani. When they watch the song in this film, they get to know about an old song that our generation grew up watching."

Citing an example from his real life, Ahmed said: "My son is 11 years old and when he got to know that we are doing this song in our film, one of his friends asked him who Madhuri Dixit is. And one of his other friends replied, ‘That dancer, yesteryear heroine who teaches dance on YouTube called ‘Dance With Madhuri''.

"It clearly shows the reference point of the future generation. So, any recreated version of these kind of songs serves two purposes -- revisiting the memory of the old song and connecting to the young generation with an upgraded version of the song."

Madhuri is yet to give a feedback on the song.

Asked if he has spoken to Madhuri, Ahmed said: "Giving a feedback is her choice. I have nothing to say on that. We have done the song, bought the rights and in a legal way.

"I think we should be encouraged to attempt to recreate a song like ‘Ek Do Teen' that was released 30 years ago."

The film "Baaghi 2" is slated to release on March 30.