Mumbai : Bollywood’s legendary choreographer Saroj Khan died of cardiac arrest on the wee hours of Friday, July 3, 2020, at around 2 am. She was unwell for past few days and was admitted to Guru Nanak Hospital in Bandra, Mumbai on June 20.
The 71-year-old’s burial took place in Malad cemetery on Friday morning. She is survived by daughter Sukaina Khan and son Raju Khan. Her daughter told PTI, “We buried her at around 7 am. The prayer meeting will be held after three days.”
Saroj Khan, lovingly called Masterji by Bollywood celebrities had an illustrious career spanning four decades. Her name is synonymous with brilliant choreography and chartbuster songs in the Hindi movie industry. In fact, it was for her great skills that Filmfare actually introduced the ‘Best Choreography’ category in awards and she won the first one for ‘Tezaab’.
Several celebrities, political leaders and fans condoled her demise and called it ‘an end of an era’ in Bollywood on social media.
A hard taskmaster and no-nonsense teacher, who gave us some memorable songs with Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit, which again became instrumental in shaping their movie careers including many other actresses as well.
She did over 200 movies in her rich filmography and started off at a young age of 3 as a child artist and later became a background dancer.
She established herself as an independent choreographer with 1974 release ‘Geeta Mera Naam’ but it was only many years later in movies with Sridevi that she got recognition.
Her camaraderie and collaboration with superstar Madhuri Dixit delivered sure shot success. Blockbuster songs like ‘Ek Do Teen’ in Tezaab, Tamma Tamma Loge in Thanedaar and Dhak Dhak Karne Laga in Beta are a few milestones in her career which helped her emerge as the numero uno choreographer in Bollywood.
Masterji was also seen as a judge on several dance-based reality shows such as Nach Baliye, Ustaadon Ka Ustaad, Nachle Ve with Saroj Khan, Boogie Woogie, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa to name a few.
Her on-screen and off-screen bonding with Madhuri Dixit resulted in some of the iconic dance moves. Incidentally, her last film ‘Kalank’ (2019) was with Madhuri for the song ‘Tabaah Ho Gaye’.
With her loss, an era of dance has come to an end in Bollywood – a void which can never be filled again.
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