Song-and-dance sequences are a staple in Indian cinema, but there was a time when these sequences were choreographed very simply. One of the first people who made Bollywood-style choreography her profession, and succeeded at it, was the late Saroj Khan. She was born a year after India gained Independence, but she was cursed to live a life where she’d constantly seek the support of older men. The death of her father at a young age, she said, influenced her psychology. Saroj was born a Hindu, but would convert to Islam after being struck with a huge tragedy. She lost two of her children before passing away herself in 2020. Her work left a massive impact on dance, but her life was marked by several setbacks.
Saroj wasn’t born when her family was forced to flee Pakistan and move to India, but she had to grow up around tremendous hardship. She said that there were days when her family didn’t have food to eat. “My mother would put pots and pans on the stove, and pretend to cook, hoping that we would fall asleep first,” she said in an interview with the BBC, with a smile on her face. She would soon become the sole breadwinner of the family, before she’d even hit adulthood. She was always in a vulnerable position, which made her a target for men who’d exploit her.
Editor-producer Ashok Honda, Sunil Shetty, choreographer Saroj Khan, and director Sanjay Khanna.
When she first showed signs of being interested in dance as an art form, her mother thought that she was mentally unwell. A young Saroj would dance along with her own shadow for company, and make expressions with her face, much to her parents’ concern. “My mother took me to the doctor. He said, ‘Nothing is wrong with her. She wants to dance, let her dance’,” she told the BBC in a 2000 interview. It was the same doctor who suggested that Saroj be put to work in the film industry, especially since the family needed funds. “Don’t worry, a lot of people come to us, looking for child artistes,” he told Saroj’s mother. She was just three years old at the time, looking at a career as a child star in the films. “I worked mostly with Balraj Sahni,” she recalled. Saroj had no choice but to work, because her father died when she was just a child. “I had my brothers and sisters to look after, I had to earn, I had to send them to school, to get them married. I had to do everything,” she said on the Doordarshan show Koshish Se Kaamyaabi Tak in 2016.
But, as things were for child artistes back in the day, she was discarded when she turned 10. “I was neither here nor there, not wanted as a child, and not wanted as an adult,” she told BBC. It was then that she devoted herself to her first love, dance. Saroj became a background dancer, and the first project she worked on was the film Howrah Bridge, starring Madhubala. She appeared as a part of the group in the song “Aaiye Meherban,” performed by Asha Bhosle.
Choreographer Saroj Khan and Madhuri Dixit on the set of film Dil. Express archive photo
But just as she was taking her first steps into the world of choreography, she came across the man who would shape her life forever. The man was S Sohanlal, a renowned ‘dance master’ from the South. He was 30 years older than her, married with four children. And yet, he preyed on the young Saroj, and they ‘got married’ when she was just 13. She was just 12 when she first met Sohanlal, and was groomed by him. She was only 14 when she gave birth to their first child, a son. She also gave birth to a daughter, who died at eight months old. Her death would influence Saroj’s decision to convert to Islam many years later.
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Choreographer Saroj Khan, Ajay Devgn and Raveena Tandon. Express archive photo
In the DD interview, Saroj tried to explain what might have led her to ‘marry’ Sohanlal. “When you don’t have a parent, your mind is often bothered about filling that void. It was like loving my father, although it turned out to be a romance. He was like a father figure. I felt very secure. Plus, when he used to dance, he was the most handsome man in the world. I became crazy about him because of his dance.” They parted amicably after he refused to legally marry her. Saroj said that she did it for her children, because Sohanlal refused to accept them as his. He also lied to her about being married. She told Indya.com, “I did not know what marriage meant at that time. He just put a black thread around my neck one day and I thought I was married. He didn’t tell me that he was already married with four kids. I learned about his first wife only when I gave birth to my first child.”
Saroj had another daughter with Sohanlal, Kuku, who died in 2011. The circumstances of her birth were also unusual. After separating from Sohanlal, they were united for one night only when he suffered a heart attack. “I went to see him and there was that one night when I was with him. I conceived my daughter, Kuku. After that he completely disappeared from my life and settled in Madras,” she said.
Choreographer Saroj Khan. Express archive photo.
But her life continued down an unconventional path. She married Sardar Roshan Khan in 1975, but he was already married, and had children. She told DD, “He had four children, I had two. He asked me to marry him. I agreed, but on the condition that he adopts my children.” When she got married to Khan, she converted to Islam. “I was a Hindu. My name name was Saroj Kishan Chand Sadhu Singh Nagpal. We are Sindhi Punjabis. I met my husband, fell in love, and converted. I love Islam. I myself went to a mosque and changed my religion and became a Muslim. People have asked me if I was forced. And I told them that I lost a baby girl, and she would come to me in my dreams, and call for me from inside a mosque…” she said in a separate interview with DD.
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Saroj said that she never hid any details about the identity of her children’s father from them. She told them that she wouldn’t marry Khan if they were opposed to the idea, but also stressed that they would live life feeling illegitimate if she didn’t marry him. “My second husband never let my children feel like outsiders, or like he wasn’t their father. They both loved him very much, and would tell Kuku, who was four at the time, that he is her father,” she told DD.
Saroj Khan died in 2o2o, in the early phase of the pandemic. The entire film industry paid tribute to her for her contributions to Hindi cinema. Her work has become an integral part of Hindi films, and will continue to live on and inspire future generations. She choreographed multiple generations of actors, including Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Shah Rukh Khan, Govinds, Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Raveena Tandon and many others.
