‘Dhak Dhak’ or ‘Abban Tianani’: the iconic Madhuri Dixit song that borrowed its beat from Ilayaraja’s Telugu Hit

Madhuri Dixit’s prestigious’Started coveredThe 1992 film ‘Beeta’ has been associated with her erotic screen appearance and permanent star power. Wrapped in a yellow colored satin saree, her performance was a significant turn of how Bollywood depicted female desire and agency. Choreographed by Saroj Khan and sung by Anuradha Paudwal and Udit Narayan, Madhuri’s magnetic performance fascinated the audience and strengthened her position as ‘Dhaka Dhaka’ girl. With the music of Anand Milind and song by Sameer, the song became a cultural reference point, which was placed in memory of the Bollywood fan of the 90s.The Hidden Origin: Sridevi to MadhuriBut many fans did not realize for years that the tune of ‘Dhak Dhak’ was not original. The raga was removed from Ilaiyaraja’s 1990 Telugu song ‘Abbani Tianani‘Jagadeka Virudu Athiloka Sundari’, in which Sridevi and Chiranjeevi acted. Sung by SP Balasubrahmanyam and KS Chithra, the original version was a romantic innocent yet innocent and was depicted in an open garden -like setting, which was removed from the extremely sexuality of ‘beta’. While the Hindi version became a sex symbol-defined moment, it gave its music soul to a completely different cultural and cinematic context.A literary tune in the golden age of BollywoodThe 1990s are often remembered as a golden age Bollywood MusicBut this music was also a period with literary theft. Music composers such as Anand Milind, Jatin-Lalit, Nadeem-Shravan and Anu Malik were competing fiercely, and many people resorted to ‘inspired’ tracks-often raised directly from South Indian or international music. ‘Covered Dhak’ was a case where business pressure led a borrowed Melody to find a large -scale appeal.Musician regrets, audience’s amusing diseaseYears later, Anand Milind admitted in an interview with the Indian Express that he was “forced” to use specific tunes by producers and this literary theft was often beyond his control. “Today, I regret what we did,” Anand said. Despite regrets, the popularity of the song has ended – its original story has been buried under praise and apathy for decades.