This song was supposed to be a short track meant only for the film's background score. However, when A.R. Rahman recorded it initially, the filmmakers liked it so much that they asked him to record it as a full-length song.[1]
Gulzar's lines for the song's mukhda were inspired by Bulleh Shah's poem "Ranjha ranjha kardi ve main aape ranjha hoyi". He had used this Bullesh Shah line earlier in "Ranjha Ranjha" ("Raavan", 2010).[2]