Saroj Khan, who passed away on July 3, 2020, was considered one of the best choreographers Indian cinema has ever seen. Known for creating memorable dance sequences like ‘Ek Do Teen’ and ‘Dola Re Dola’, among many others, her professional achievements have been immense, but her personal life has seen a lot of struggles and trauma.
However, it was her passion for dancing that kept her going.She was married off when she was just 13 years old, only to later discover that the marriage was invalid. Forced to take on responsibilities early in life, she never had the opportunity to experience a carefree childhood. Interestingly, her entry into films was not planned but happened purely by chance.
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Recalling those early days, she said in an interview with Koshish Si Kamyabi Tak, “My father passed away, and I had to keep the house running.
I became a group dancer. “I was studying and wanted to become a doctor, but God had other plans.”The defining moment in her journey came when she caught the attention of famous dance director Sohanlal on the sets. He noticed that not only was she performing her assigned steps, but she was also matching dancer Helen’s steps flawlessly. When asked to perform the entire routine, she did so with confidence, landing the position of his assistant at just twelve years old.
However, her association with Sohanlal soon took a complicated turn. At the age of thirteen, she married him, even though he was three decades older than her, only to later discover that he was already married with four children, making their marriage illegal. By the age of 14, she was expecting her first child.Reflecting on that stage, she said in an interview with the BBC: “I did not know what marriage meant at that time. He put a black string around my neck one day and I thought I was married.”Years later, in 1975, she found companionship again with businessman Sardar Roshan Khan, who proposed to her. She agreed to marry him on the condition that he accept and adopt her children from her previous relationship. Saroj Khan, a Punjabi Hindu by birth, converted to Islam after his marriage because he respected her request.Despite finding stability later in life, personal loss continued to haunt her. Since her first marriage, she had suffered the devastating loss of a baby girl who died within eight months of her birth.