Dil Chahta Hai Movie (2001) Interesting Facts, Mistakes
Dil Chahta Hai Movie Story Summary
Three inseparable childhood friends are just out of college. Nothing comes between them - until they each fall in love, and their wildly different approaches to relationships creates tension.
Dil Chahta Hai Movie Stars
Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna
Dil Chahta Hai Movie Storyline
Three young men Akash, Sameer, and Siddharth are close friends, but their tastes and characters are completely incompatible. So when Siddharth falls in love with a much older woman, Tara, a woman who has been unsuccessful in keeping her marriage intact as well as alcohol-dependent, widens the rift between the trio, forcing them to part company. Years later, the trio will be re-united, they will be much mature and understanding, but will they still accept Siddharth love for Tara, especially when they themselves have fallen in love with women around their respective ages?
Dil Chahta Hai Movie Interesting Facts
- Aamir Khan's now wife Kiran Rao plays Deepa's friend in the scene when Khan's character hides behind the plant.
- The scene where Sid comforts Deepa by telling her his philosophy about "it being impossible to grasp the grains of sand with a tighter clasp" is a subtle homage to the poem 'A Dream Within A Dream' by Edgar Allan Poe.
- Farhan Akhtar originally wrote the movie by casting Akshaye Khanna as Akash, Hrithik Roshan as Siddhart and Saif Ali Khan as Sameer. When Hrithik Roshan turned the role down, it went to Abhishek Bachchan. After Abhishek's exit, Farhan approached Aamir Khan who was going though a lean phase at the time. Aamir Khan insisted on playing Akash and Akshaye Khanna graciously agreed to swap roles.
- Saif Ali Khan initially refused the film but was persuaded by Dimple Kapadia to sign on.
- Dil Chahta Hai released a month later after Lagaan which was also a big hit of Aamir Khan and was still going house full when Dil Chahta Hai released.
- Producer's and Director's opened offers to Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Khanna's declining career after the success of this film.
- Aamir Khan's second major hit in a row after his critically acclaimed blockbuster Lagaan (2001).
- The first major role for Saif Ali Khan. Dil Chahta Hai won him numerous acclaim and revived his sinking career.
- Over the years, it has attained a cult status.
- Raj Zutshi, who is Aamir Khan's cousin, has a cameo in this movie. He gives the voice for Tara's (Dimple Kapadia) husband when they both are shown having an argument.
- The girl that Akshaye meets at the end resembled Dimple. This was deliberate. A man like Sid had to get someone who reminded him of Tara to be interested in her. The DCH team had a long hunt for such a person and finally found her in their costume designer's assistant's friend. She is an Italian and lives in Rome.
- At one point, Farhan Akhtar considered and offered Shah Rukh Khan the role either of Akash or Sid. However, Shah Rukh declined.
- Farhan Akhtar denies a story that DCH was inspired by actual events. His mother Honey Irani had written the script for director Aditya Chopra's Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, but was not given credit for her work. The story goes that this affected Akhtar's friendship with Chopra and more so with the director's younger brother Uday. And Akhtar eventually incorporated that break in his friendship with Uday into the plot of DCH. "I would be lying if I said I wasn't upset," Akhtar says. "Not just at Uday, but at all of them. Because these are people I knew for practically all my life. It really upset my Mom for a long time because they were her close friends. But no, it was not an inspiration for Dil Chahta Hai." Time has healed things, Akhtar says, and he maintains a cordial relationship with the Chopra brothers. "Unfortunately, there are certain things you cannot forget," he adds.
- Dil Chahta Hai was completed within the scheduled 108 days at locales like Sydney, Bombay and Goa.
- The book read by Preity Zinta during the train scene in the song 'Jaane Kyun' is Steve Martini's 1999 released book titled 'The Attorney'.
- Since its release, the music has received widespread critical acclaim and is considered a milestone in the history of Bollywood film music.
- Before the film's release the story of the film was rumored to be based on AIDS and how three friends live happily in their final days.
- This feature won the National Award for best film but did not win a Filmfare Award for the same.
- Dimple's character required an actor who could add dimension to the complex layers of emotion that the character goes through. And it wasn't long before Dimple had fully designed and molded herself to fit the role like a glove," mentioned Farhan in several interviews.
- The first film written and directed by Farhan Akhtar.
- In 2001, the film won National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.
- Rahman commented that he was glad that the project went to Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and he personally loved their work in the film.
- All lyrics written by Javed Akhtar; all music composed by Shankar Ehsaan Loy.
- The song "Woh Ladki Hai Kahan" essentially launched singer Shaan's career, as it was the first hit of his career
- Shiney Ahuja was almost cast in the role of Siddharth.
- Farhan alsways talks about is the writing in DCH and also its honest portrayal of Westernised urban youth in Mumbai. "Most Hindi movies tend to dramatise events. They are very dialogue heavy. Characters don't speak like people normally do in real life. So it was a conscious decision, which is why I wrote the dialogues of the film. He also wanted it in live sound to make the film feel more real and like a international movie. He could have commissioned someone else to write the dialogues of DCH ("Most probably it would have been my Dad," he says). "It would have been very powerful and completely blown me away," he says. "But I didn't want any of the characters to speak a language I was not familiar with. So I wrote in the Hindi I know, which has a lot of English in it.
- The story of DCH developed from different angles. A childhood friend of Akhtar narrated a story outline to him which eventually became Akash's (Aamir Khan) track. Meanwhile, a few years ago, Akhtar began to write a diary about his trips to Goa and his month-and-half-long visit to New York in 1996, with endless parties at the city's hippest bars."I had so much fun in New York and I wanted to capture that in a film," he says. The Australian parts of DCH were originally supposed to be shot in New York, "but it would have been winter in New York at that time," he explains.
- Film's soundtrack album was featured in the BBC Asian Network's Top 40 Soundtracks of All Time list and Planetbollywood's 100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks list.
- The soundtrack stayed away from traditional Bollywood sounds and instead set a new standard for edgy, rock-influenced sounds.
- The characters are depicted as upper-class with lavish houses and designer clothes.
- Film has made the Chapora Fort in Goa so famous that the place is now more commonly known as the 'Dil Chahta Hai Fort
- The music of the film was well received, and the song Koi Kahe was played at parties for many years.
- Om Puri turned down the role of Shalini's uncle because he was very busy at the time and couldn't come for shooting.
- Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan previously starred together in the 1993 film Parampara which also featured Akshaye Khanna's father Vinod Khanna.
- Some parts of Dil Chahta Hai were adapted from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
- Aamir Khan did not want to play Sid and wanted to play Akash instead.
- There is an extended opera sequence at the Sydney Opera House, which was exclusively commissioned for the film.
- It performed better in the urban areas of the country compared to the rural areas, which was attributed by critics to the city-oriented lifestyle depicted in which all the characters are from rich or upper-middle-class families.
- Isha Koppikar was the original choice for the role of Pooja.
- In 2016, Akhtar stated that he had "a lot on his mind" about a sequel to Dil Chahta Hai.
- Akshaye Khanna was the first guy that Farhan met for that film. He wanted to cast him in the role that Aamir eventually played... that of Aakash. Farhan wanted Hrithik Roshan to play Sameer (played by Saif Ali Khan) and Farhan wanted Abhishek Bachchan as Sid (Akshaye).
- Initially, director Farhan Akhtar had approached A. R. Rahman for composing the music. But since Rahman was busy with other engagements, he did not accept the offer.
- Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy along with Farhan Akhtar, Javed Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani went to Khandala to finalize the songs, which took a mere three and a half days.
- The way Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy used thickly layered orchestration and conveyed meaning through Timbre, Pitch and Melody rather than text, was then, probably new to Bollywood.
- According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 20,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's eighth highest-selling.
- The relationship of the characters Akash and Shalini was based on a similar experience of one of Akhtar's friends.
- Akshaye Khanna agreed to play Sid so that Khan could play Akash.
- After 15 months of extensive pre-production, the film was shot over a four-month period in Mumbai, India and Sydney, Australia.
- One song sequence recapitulates and, to some extent, parodies Bollywood song-and-dance history.
- The Aguada fort in Goa has been an integral part of a lot of iconic scene in this movie.
- Farhan Akhtar approached Sikander Kher to play Saif Ali Khan's role. But Sikander was still not ready to debut in films.
- Dil Chahta Hai is considered to be pathbreaking and one of the best soundtracks to have emerged in contemporary Indian music.
- The album has a universal sound, unlike other Bollywood soundtracks of the time.
- Only film of Aamir khan and Preity zinta till date
- Chandrachur Singh was offered the role of Rohit (Shalini's boyfriend) but he turned it down.
- Planet Bollywood's 100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks Ever read, "What made Dil Chahta Hai album special at that time was that it was an experimental album and it worked a huge way."
- Sting song "Desert Rose" was used in a scene.
- The looks of the trio actors became famous.
- The movie is partially based on writer-director Farhan Akhtar's diaries on his trips to Las Vegas, his 1996 month-and-a-half long stay at New York City, and a storyline narrated to him by a friend.
- Farhan Akhtar began work on the script in 1998.
- Akhtar offered the part of Akash to Khanna and he offered the part of Sid to Aamir Khan.
- Akhtar convinced actress Dimple Kapadia to come out of retirement to play the role of divorcée Tara Jaiswal.
- Dil Chahta Hai's style extended to the music and its picturisation.
- The film was well received by critics for portraying contemporary Indian youth as cosmopolitan and urban.
- Actors attend art exhibitions and performances of Western opera, and travel overseas as a matter of course.
- Some critics opined that Dil Chahta Hai did not perform well in the non-urban areas because the lifestyle depicted was too city-oriented.
- 'Two of Us' by Aimee Mann and Micheal Penn was the inspiration for the song Kaise Hain Yeh Rut.
- Manisha Koirala was offered Dimple's character, but she refused the role without even reading the script.
- Aamir Khan and Preity Zinta was were involved with each other during the making of the film
- The traditional Australian instrument "instrdidgeridoo" was used in intro of the song "Jaane Kyon Log ". The same instrument was used in the intro of WWE superstar Nathan Jones theme music "Boggo Road". Nathan would go on to star with Tiger Shroff in A Flying Jatt.
- Ameesha Patel was offered the role of Shalini, but she refused it due to scheduling conflicts with Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000). Upon her refusal, she was replaced by Preity Zinta.
- The trio had various influences, including Irish and ethno.
- Initially, Akhtar wanted Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Akshaye Khanna in the three main roles, where Roshan would do the role of Sameer, Bachchan would do the role of Sidharth, and Khanna would do Akash. While Khanna agreed to do the film, Roshan and Bachchan were unavailable, and they were replaced by Saif Ali Khan and Aamir Khan, respectively.
- Dil Chahta Hai was screened at the International Film Festival of India, the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival.
- The track "Woh Ladki Hai Kahan" is frenzied Celtic music with bluegrass fiddling accustomed by Ehsaan's Acoustic guitar riffs and Flute.
- Shankar Mahadevan composed the title track while brushing and rest of the songs he had composed sitting in bathroom.
Dil Chahta Hai Movie Mistakes
- When the three friends meet Deepa in the hotel lobby, they claim to be staying there since a week. However, as per earlier scenes and Akash's black eye, they have met Deepa in the club during Koi Kahe song just couple of days ago. The very next day after Koi Kahe song, Akash breaks up Sameer and Priya, and hence take Sameer to Goa.
- When the guys are talking on the fortress ruins in Goa Sid refers to a ship that he is watching about to go over the horizon. The clip clearly shows a ship which is moving toward them, not away.
