A quarter century after Dil Chahta Hai changed the way friendship was shown in Hindi cinema, director Farhan Akhtar has spoken about how tough it was to even get the 2001 film made.
In an interview with The Juggernaut Akhtar opened up about the resistance he faced while trying to cast the story of three friends at a time when Bollywood was completely dominated by romantic dramas and love triangles.
“Everyone Wanted A Love Triangle”
The biggest hurdle, Akhtar said, was convincing big stars to say yes to a “multi-hero” film.
“Casting Aamir Khan wasn’t an easy task. Everyone said, ‘I don’t want to do a multi-hero film’… At the time, everyone wanted to do a love triangle,” he recalled.
For Akhtar, that was exactly what he didn’t want Dil Chahta Hai to be. From day one, he was firm that the film would not fall back on the cliched plot of two men fighting over one woman.
“For me, the core of the film was about friendship and I wouldn’t have two guys fighting over a girl,” he said.
8 Months Of Waiting To Narrate To Aamir
Getting Aamir Khan to even listen to the script turned out to be a long process. Even though Akhtar’s father, veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar had worked with Aamir on Lagaan Farhan chose not to take any shortcuts.
“I didn’t ask for any special introduction. I kept knocking on doors and waited eight months before Aamir agreed to hear the full script,” the director said.
That persistence paid off. According to Akhtar, Aamir later told him he respected how determined he was to have him in the film. That, Aamir felt, showed how badly Farhan wanted him for the role.
A Film That Redefined Friendship
When _Dil Chahta Hai released in 2001, it broke away from the template of the time. Instead of melodrama and sacrifice, it gave audiences three urban friends — their conversations, their silences, their growth. The film went on to set a new benchmark for how friendship and modern relationships could be portrayed in mainstream Hindi cinema.
As the film marks 25 years this year, Akhtar’s memories remind us that the story of Sid, Sameer and Akash almost didn’t make it to theatres. It took conviction, repeated rejections, and months of waiting to get one of Bollywood’s biggest stars to believe in a simple idea: a film about friends.
