Marking 25 years of Lagaan, Aamir Khan, A.R. Rahman, Javed Akhtar and Ashutosh Gowariker reunited to revisit the film’s iconic soundtrack and announce a nationwide theatrical re-release in June 2026. At Spotify’s first live ‘Behind the Beats’, they shared intimate stories behind songs like Ghanan Ghanan, Chale Chalo and O Paalanhaare, reflecting on nostalgia, craft and cultural impact.
While the Proust effect is a phenomenon commonly associated with taste and smell, some auditory triggers have the same effect. For many, one such example is the intro of the song ‘Chale Chalo’ — one is immediately transported back to dressing up as Bhuvan for a fancy-dress competition or to the electrifying energy of the theatre. In fact, almost every song on the album of Ashutosh Gowariker's Lagaan is guaranteed to bring back a core memory for most.
Whether it’s innocence manifesting itself as a smile that unknowingly appears on one’s face every time ‘Radha Kaise Na Jale’ plays, or the vivid memory of a nation uniting in the confines of a theatre that comes rushing back when one hears ‘O Palan Haare,’ the commercial presentation of the film’s nuanced commentary on colonialism, caste, and resistance has firmly secured its place in Indian pop culture. The album, composed by A.R. Rahman, has equally helped carry its legacy for over 25 years.
To celebrate this milestone, Aamir Khan Productions took to Instagram to announce that the film will be re-released in theatres across the country from June 12 to 14 this month.
At Spotify’s first-ever live recording of ‘Behind the Beats’ — a special event, celebrating the film and its soundtrack — the film’s producer and lead actor Aamir Khan, composer A.R. Rahman, lyricist Javed Akhtar, and writer-director Ashutosh Gowariker joined the audience on a journey down memory lane as they narrated stories of how the album came to be. From initial rejections and challenges to eventual success and adulation, they discuss it all.
Ghanan Ghanan
Aamir Khan: “This was the first song of the film that I heard, and it blew me away. It was a very important song because it had to set the tone by establishing the importance of water for the rest of the movie. I don’t know how you made it, A.R... there’s an excitement in the movement and tempo of the song. It has the joy of the rain finally coming; it takes you on a ride, and once it’s over, you realise that the clouds have gone away and there’s no rain. I can’t think of any other song that takes you on a journey like this one.”
Ashutosh Gowariker: “Rahman’s process is unlike anyone else’s. Instead of presenting us with a tune or a melody, he presented us with almost three hours' worth of music and asked us to choose the parts that we liked. For this specific song, we had the fast-paced melody at the very start, but had no idea how to put any words to it... until I got a call from Javed saab and he recited the lyrics. It was unbelievable.”
O Rey Chhori
A.R. Rahman: “Originally, this tune was for my album Maa Tujhe Salaam and not Lagaan. It was also a lot slower, and Aamir wasn’t a fan. He told me Karan Johar’s film is releasing around the same time and that he has amazing romantic songs. He asked me, 'What have you done?' and then we ended up speeding up the song.”
Aamir Khan: “Also, I don’t know how many people are aware, but the English lyrics in this song were written by Farhan and Zoya [Akhtar].”
Javed Akhtar: “Yeah, these are some of the benefits of educating your kids and sending them to college.”
Mitwa
Javed Akhtar: “The word ‘Mitwa’ was never actually meant to be in the song, but Rahman told me that he needed a word here that would become the hook, and that’s how we got the word ‘Mitwa.’ He didn’t have a great grasp of the language back then, but his thoughts were uncannily correct. That is the genius of AR Rahman.
It was very important that the music would have been of the time shown in the film but palatable to the current audience. It is s Rahman’s master stroke that he managed the orchestra the way he did; it was the perfect mix of nostalgia and modernity.”
Radha Kaise Na Jale
Ashutosh Gowariker: “Aamir is fantastic with romance, which is why I was certain that I needed a strong romantic track in the film, and there was no better way to showcase Gauri and Elizabeth falling in love with Bhuvan except a song. There was already such naughtiness in Rahman’s music, and then Javed saab came up with the lines ‘Radha kaise na jale’... for me this song is number one."
Javed Akhtar: “I’m not sure whether this was a compliment or just an observation, but a friend... a married doctor called me up and told me that the line of argument between Radha and Krishna in the song is very modern, especially the bit where he says, ‘Gopiyaan aani jaani hai, Radha toh mann ki rani hai.’ He said that this was a very common discussion and only a smart husband or lover could come up with such an argument.”
Chale Chalo
Ashutosh Gowariker: “Rahman’s music has a great quality — it has a lot of solitude and melancholy. It’s in his voice. The situation of the song is such that the team has finally come together, and it must portray that final thrust before the match.
However, the lyrics had not been written. So, in the original tune, you had Rahman humming and using the words ‘Nasha Nasha’ instead of ‘Chale Chalo.’ Ironically, Aamir and I got addicted to those words, and so when we took the song to Javed saab, we told him to write whatever he wanted… without changing the words ‘Nasha Nasha.’”
Javed Akhtar: “There is no rain, the farmers are starving to death, they must pay three times the lagaan… and the producer and director of the movie are asking me to use the words ‘Nasha Nasha.’ I had to put my foot down and use the words ‘Chale Chalo,’ which eventually also became the name of the documentary based on this film. If it weren’t for me, that documentary would have been called ‘Nasha Nasha.’
O Paalanhaare
Javed Akhtar: “When people ask me which is the one song I found a challenge to write, I always say it’s 'O Paalanhaare' because you can strip the song of its lyrics and just listen to the music, you can play it to an Eskimo, or someone from Manhattan or Moscow... I guarantee that everyone can tell you that it’s a tune of devotion. It’s so pure and real that it doesn’t sound man-made, and that scared me. Even as an atheist, I had to find innocence and surrender in my heart. You can’t write such songs with tact and craft; it can only be done with purity and simplicity.”
A.R. Rahman: “I could see that the movie had such an ambitious vision, and I wanted to make the music timeless, and luckily it has become that. But timeless music needs timeless singers, and that’s how we approached Lata ji and Asha ji for this song specifically and the album in general.”