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But it was Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara which brought Bipasha everlasting musical fame. The ‘item song’ as the abhorrent description of special songs goes, Beedi Jalai Le Jigar Se Piya sung by Sunidhi Chauhan and Namak Ishq Ka rendered by Rekha Bhardwaj placed Bipasha in the hall of fame.
She danced to the two noteworthy songs as though there was no tomorrow.
Bipasha felt her role as Billo in Omkara was brief. But Billo couldn’t be ignored. Not with those two traffic-stopping songs and dances. The first day when she went on the set to perform the Bidee Jalai Le song, she saw the crowd of junior artistes. She panicked and ran away.
On top of it all, Saif Ali Khan came up to her and whispered, ‘Are you… like… scared? Don’t worry. You just dance. We’ll take care of you. If anything happens just tell us.’
Once Bipasha started to dance, it was okay. Later, she came to know that the junior artistes were all fine actors. They had been preparing for the dirty Uttar Pradesh bhaiya look for weeks.
Her character Billo started off as a special appearance. Omkara was a serious film. Bipasha provided the light moments. Omkara helped her get over her mind block over dancing.
Bipasha preferred Namak Ishq Ka over Beedi Jalai Le in Omkara. When Bipasha heard the song, it sounded difficult. And to lip-sync Rekha Bhardwaj’s intricate rendition was doubly tough. On top of that they got a non-film dance-guruji Bhushan Lakandri instead of a routine choreographer to do the number. Bipasha nearly fainted. Bipasha thought he’d expect her to be as trained and skilled in dancing as Madhuri Dixit or Aishwarya Rai. The only dancing she knew was going mad in a disco.
Bipasha did Namak Ishq Ka without any training whatsoever. In spite of her reservations, Bhushan Lakandri and Vishal Bhardwaj had faith in Bipasha. She pulled it off.