The story behind Ramaiah Vastavayya song in Raj Kapoor’s film Shree 420

When Raj Kapoor started making Awara, the music team used to go to Khandala to compose music for the songs. During such trips to Khandala by all the four (Shanker, Jaikishan, Shailendra, and Hazrat Jaipuri) they used to stop at a roadside hotel for chai and snacks, etc. There was a Telugu person called “Ramaiah” working there.  Shanker used to talk to him in Telugu and give orders to him only, not to anyone else. Shanker knew Telugu very well as he was born and grew up in Hyderabad, though they were originally from UP.

During one such visit to the hotel, Shanker called Ramaiah to take the order. Ramaiah signaled him to wait as he was busy with some other customers. As there was some delay in his coming, Shanker became a little impatient and started humming “Ramayya Vastavayya... Ramayya Vastavayya” calling Ramaiah to come quickly.

To his words, Jaikishan started making tabla sounds on the serving table. This went on for a while, Hasrat got bored by this repetition and said to Shanker “only this much, nothing more?" Then  Shailendra immediately added  "mainey dil tujhuko diya“ meaning they all waiting for Ramaiah to come.

When both lines were sung together, they thought this could be a song,  if continued further. After some time Ramaiah came,  took the order, and served.

The lines and tune were told to Raj Kapoor and the actor was very impressed and accepted the new format. He created a situation and lyrics were written keeping these lines intact.

Even though they wanted to replace the “Ramaiah Vastavayya“ line with some Hindi words, no suitable line was found and no one was happy replacing it. So, they retained original Telugu words,  even though the Hindi audiences could not understand its meaning.

 

This song was superhit and is hummed to date as one of the best songs in the Hindi film music scenario.