From riches to rags to riches again, Farah Khan’s life journey is truly inspirational

A successful choreographer and filmmaker

After that there was no looking back for Farah. She has choreographed innumerable notable songs like ‘Dhol Bajne Laga’ (‘Virasat’), ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ (‘Dil Se’), ‘Ek Pal Ka Jeena’ (‘Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai’), ‘Munni Badnaam Hui’ (‘Dabangg’), and many more. She is now a successful choreographer and a successful filmmaker who has directed hit films like ‘Main Hoon Na’, ‘Om Shanti Om’ and ‘Happy New Year’. She juggles with work and personal life with great ease and enjoys life to the fullest. Her life journey may not have been flowery throughout, but it was these experiences that perhaps made her the strong woman that she is. What an inspiration, this woman!

Her first break as a choreographer

We all know that Saroj Khan was going to choreograph the song ‘Pehla Nasha’, but she didn’t turn up and Farah, who was also working on the song with the senior choreographer, got the opportunity to choreograph it. However, let us reveal that this was not the first song Farah had choreographed. She had actually choreographed the title song of a film titled ‘Kahan Kahan Se Guzar Gaya’ in which she was also a background dancer. In an interview, she had revealed that the film’s director MS Sathyu lived in her building and had paid some Rs 300 or Rs 500 for the song. However she doesn't know if she was given credit for it.

Her struggle as a dancer

Farah was a lot into dancing and choreographing, but had no money to join film school or even dancing class. “My regret is that I have never learned any form of dance officially which does hinder me,” she had said. She would participate in dance competitions until she got her first break.

No money for her father’s funeral

When her father died, they just had 30 rupees, and she had to run around to ask money for the funeral. She also said that she gets angry on people who say that she had a privileged childhood.

Poor cousins

For the uninitiated, Farah Khan is the first cousin of Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar. In an interview, when she was asked about being the poor cousin of Farhan and Zoya, the choreographer said, “They never made us feel like that. But we were poor cousins. Honey aunty and Daisy aunty supported my mom a lot. We stayed in their house for long. But you do feel sometimes. I still tell my mom we are no more poor cousins anymore. But she still feels that complex and gratitude. But Zoya was my best friend; she used to follow me everywhere. And Farhan was close to Sajid."

Farah’s first tryst with adversity

A bright child, Farah Khan hailed from a very well-to-do family. Her filmmaker father, Kamran Khan, was a very rich man. But tables turned when one of his films ‘Aisa Bhi Hota Hai’ failed badly. Talking about the downfall her father had, Farah had once said in an interview, “It was literally riches to rags story like the way it happens in film.” She revealed that everything they had, from gramophone to her mother's jewellery, was gone. The only thing they had was a 500 sq ft house which was in her mother’s name. Her mother and father got divorced when Sajid and she were very young. They used to shuttle between their mother and father.