When Raj met Simran after 1,000 weeks

Though DDLJ is a pop culture classic, Khan and Kajol admitted to not being able to find an occasion, other than this event, to talk about the making of DDLJ. On Friday, the memories came flooding — sweeping them as well as the audience away.

Kajol said she had hated the title and thought it was “tacky” and “utterly stupid”. Khan thought it was a “pansy love story” and was more keen on playing a macho lover. After much persuasion by director Aditya Chopra, he agreed to do the role on a day when things were chaotic while he was shooting for Karan Arjun at Bandra’s Mehboob Studio. Khan spoke of how the mandolin would hardly be the musical instrument of choice for a leather jacket-flaunting, Harley Davidson-riding hero. The then 24-year-old director Chopra wanted Khan to strum a mandolin because he loved the way legendary director-actor Raj Kapoor used it in his movies.

Khan recalled that Kajol had found it difficult to simper and blush like Simran. Chopra had to convince and train her for it. For the debutant director, the film was about proving himself — his father, producer-director Yash Chopra was a movie legend.

According to Khan, the late Yash Chopra had reservations about DDLJ, especially with the song ‘Zara sa jhoom loon main’ since it shows Kajol drinking from the bottle — he thought Indian cinegoers would find this offensive. However, following Khan’s mediation between the father and son, Aditya’s wish prevailed. The rest, as they say, is history.

Two facets of the film that have helped in making it a classic are its dialogues by Javed Siddiqui and music by the composer duo Jatin-Lalit. Khan and Kajol went over some of the famous dialogues, much to the audience’s delight. Some of the scenes which they enacted at the event included the popular scene when Raj says that if Simran truly loves him, she will turn around to look at him. The enactment of the terrace scene where Raj assures Simran that he will take her away was the evening’s high point. While talking about the songs in the movie, Khan singled out the moment in ‘Aye meri zohrajabeen’ when the late Amrish Puri breaks into a jig with his on-screen wife Farida Jalal. Kajol had a grouse though — when everybody danced to ‘Mehndi laga ke rakhna’ in the movie, she was forced to sit still, with a ghunghat over her head for most part of the song.

Before Khan and Kajol left for Maratha Mandir for further celebrations, they pointed out it’s the emotions portrayed in the film that have struck a chord with countless lovers in real life.