"Dil Chahta Hai's success was extremely important forme because till then I believed that something had jinxed my movie soundtracks.No matter how super hit my songs were at that time, the movies didn't do sowell at the box office. So, I was really hoping for this curse to break andthat happened with Dil Chahta Hai," he said, while opening up on hisBollywood playback career on the music show Indian Pro Music League (IPML).
Working on the film, he recalled, was fun. Farhan Akhtar,who made his directorial debut with the 2001 film, actually fooled the castinto believing the actor Saif Ali Khan had sung his part in the song Koi kahekehta rahe, while it had actually been sung by Shaan.
"Farhan Akhtar, had a vision that every actor shouldhave a separate voice for himself in Koi kahe kehta rahe. I was brought onboard to sing Akshaye Khanna's part in the song, but after the recording Farhanfelt that my voice matches Saif Ali Khan's more than Akshaye's," Shaanrecalled.
"What followed was hilarious! He pranked everyoneworking on the movie, telling them that Saif himself has sung this song, andsurprisingly people believed it. When everyone came to know the truth, theywere stunned even more and that's how I actually got the song ‘Woh ladki haikahaan' as well."
Dil Chahta Hai starring Aamir Khan, Preity Zinta, Saif AliKhan, Akshaye Khanna, Dimple Kapadia and Sonali Kulkarni had music byShankar-Ehsaan-Loy and lyrics by Javed Akhtar. The film was one of the biggesthits of 2001.