Subhash Ghai on making Pyaar Ki Ganga Bahe: ‘Atmosphere was charged after Babri Masjid demolition’

Subhash Ghai has opened up about his iconic song from the 90s, Pyaar Ki Ganga Bahe, and revealed that the ministry of Information and Broadcasting asked him to make to the song. In a new interview, he also revealed that the actors worked on the song for free. (Also read: Subhash Ghai says he knew Sanjay Dutt was ‘innocent’ at the time of his arrest)

Bollywood stars Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Govinda, Jackie Shroff, Rishi Kapoor and Naseeruddin Shah were seen in the song. Stars from various regional film industries also featured in the song. These included Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, Prosenjit, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Mammootty and Rasik Dave, and many others. While Udit Narayan, Mohammed Aziz, Manhar Udhas and Jolly Mukherjee sang the song, Laxmikant-Pyarelal composed the music for the song.

Talking about the song, Subhash told Indian Express in an interview, “After the demolition of Babri Masjid, the atmosphere in the country was very charged. People were dying in communal clashes and everyone was disturbed. One day while I was shooting for a film, I got a call from a secretary at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. He asked me if the film industry can come together and give a message of brotherhood to the people. To which I agreed.”

He also said that none of the actors charged anything for the song. The filmmaker added, “I wanted the message to be carried out to not just the adults but the young kids who were the future of our country. And there goes the lyrics which start with ‘sun sun sun mere munney sun’. And what could be better than the actors singing the song on screen with their own kids? That’s why you see Sonam with Anil Kapoor, Tiger with Jackie Shroff and Ranbir with Rishi Kapoor in the song.”

Subhash Ghai had shared a throwback picture from the sets of the song in 2021. He captioned it as, “It was a day for me harmonising with six stars in 1992 while picturising a song ‘pyar ki Ganga bahe” on communal harmony. There are also two future stars as kids. Guess who ?”