When audience actually saved a scene in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge

Image coutesy: www.rediff.com

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge – one of the iconic films of Bollywood and my personal favourite too has many stories hidden in the making of the film which I shall bring in front of you time and again. I am sure most of us wouldn’t mind watching the movie even today after 20 years of its release. Surprisingly the makers of the film took time to realize the value of their own creation. It was after some 7-8 days post the release of the film that Shahrukh Khan who was shooting for the film ‘Chahat’ in Jaipur snuck into one of the oldest and celebrated cinema halls of the city – Rajmandir with Pooja Bhatt, Mahesh Bhatt and Anupam Kher to catch the show of the film with the masses. Though the film had released, Aditya Chopra was in a dilemma regarding the ending of the film assuming it to be too long to hold the audience. The scene in question was the climax where Amrish Puri finds the photograph of Shahrukh & Kajol and confronts Shahrukh. Shahrukh Khan delivers a superlative performance coupled with emotional dialogues along with Kajol where he tells her that ‘ Bauji thik kehte hai’ repetitively. Aditya Chopra had already shared his concern with Shahrukh. And with that thought in his mind, being an audience at Raj Mandir, Shahrukh witnessed whispers and audience chatting while the mentioned scene was going on. Perceiving that Aditya Chopra was right, Shahrukh was itching to go back to the Hotel and call him to tell that perhaps they should consider editing that scene again for the coming week as the audience was getting distracted due to its length. It took time for Shahrukh to take note when Pooja Bhatt and Mahesh Bhatt pointed out that the audience has not shifted focus from the film and talking among themselves, in fact the sounds of chatter is actually them mouthing the dialogue along with Raj ( Shahrukh’s Character in the film ). That was the impact the film had made. Not only did the film hold the audience but also got them involved in their story. Astonished by the reaction of the audience to thefilm, Shahrukh rushed back to the hotel to call Aditya Chopra and shared his experience which eventually made him pull back his idea of re-editing one of the most captivating scenes of the film.

Source: Shahrukh Khan and Kajol's Media Interaction to celebrate 1000 weeks of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge