'Shah Rukh Khan is just sitting': Imtiaz Ali on how ‘Safar’ became a blues-country song about modern life

Imtiaz Ali has opened up about how ‘Safar’, one of the standout songs from Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’, came together and why he believes it captures the emotional state of modern life. The director said the song began in a very different musical space before evolving into something softer and more fluid. He also linked its lyrics to a larger feeling of restlessness that defines contemporary life.As per IANS, Ali said the song had its own creative journey and changed shape during the making process. He explained that what began as a heavy blues track eventually moved into what he described as a “country meets blues” zone, while still holding on to its original emotional pull. Ali said, “That was a very blues song when we conceptualized it and when we were singing it and even before the lyrics were written. Later, it became a little different, but still it retains an element of ‘country meets blues’, that kind of a zone. And it’s a very singing on the guitar kind of a song and it’s also very here and now.”He then pointed to the lines written by Irshad Kamil as the emotional center of the track. Ali said, “I feel that this line that Irshad has written, ‘idhar ka hi hoon na, udhar ka raha, safar ka hi tha main safar ka raha’, that I’m neither, I don’t belong to where I come from and I don’t belong to where I’m going. It’s like the state of the contemporary human”.Ali said that feeling of being in transit gives the song its lasting power. “One feels that one is always in a travel, it’s in a state of flux that we exist in. So I feel that it’s a very interesting song.”He also recalled filming the track and said those moments stayed with him. “I really love taking the shots of that song because there was a sense of great association. Whenever we were shooting, there were some shots at the railway station. I think in Budapest, where SRK is just sitting and we were shooting and a train was coming, that kind of shot.”For Ali, those visuals matched the song’s emotional drift. He said it felt “so nice and very fulfilling” to film them, tying the music, the mood, and Shah Rukh Khan’s screen presence into one of the film’s most memorable stretches.