Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is one of the most iconic films in Hindi cinema history. The film not only made tons of money at the box office but also established its lead stars as the foremost actors in the industry back then. Shah Rukh Khan, who was still new to films, was firmly established as a romantic hero post the film’s success. It’s another matter that the actor was reluctant to take on the mantle.
The new Netflix documentary The Romantics traces the journey of Yash Raj Films, including the careers of Yash Chopra and Aditya Chopra. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which released in 1995, marked Aditya’s directorial debut and the first time Yash produced a film all by himself. In the docu series, Shah Rukh recalled how he wanted to do action films at the point of time and did not want to be a romantic hero.
The actor even forced the Chopras to include the famous railway station fight scene in the film just because he wanted to do some action. Shah Rukh said, “I must tell you. That last action scene has been forced by me in the film. Anupam Kher was supposed to come for shooting and he got stuck in traffic. I went to Yash ji and I went to Adi and I said, ‘Please can I have one action scene in this film?’ He said no because it doesn’t make sense. I said, ‘please let me shoot it, throw it out’ Yash ji loved me so much that he said ok. He said you have one hour.”
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Eventually Shah Rukh did shoot the scene and it even stayed in the film. “One hour later, he (Yash Chopra) said ‘ho gaya bas (that’s it now)’. He asked me if I was happy now. Then he said, ‘now we will make the film we are making’,” the actor said.
DDLJ also starred Kajol, Amrish Puri, Farida Jala, Anupam Kher, Parmeet Sethi, and Mandira Bedi, along with a cameo by Karan Johar, who was one of the assistant directors on the film. The film made over Rs 200 crore and was, at that point in time, the second-highest-grossing Indian film ever.
