Cut To Switzerland

Bollywood and Switzerland have a relationship going back several decades, and nobody contributed more to it than the late Yash Chopra.

- Jigar Shah

"We have to go to Switzerland!” is what my mother says, every time my family decides to travel to Europe on holiday (the trip has not yet happened, but we’ve made more than a dozen ‘plans’ in the last decade). I thought Mom’s love for Switzerland began with watching Yash Chopra’s Chandni (1989), but she revealed that it was Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) that made her fall in love with the country. She was not the only one to whom Bollywood had been able to sell the dream of Switzerland - there are countless Bollywood fans who have already made their way there, to relive those filmy moments .

It goes without saying that Switzerland has some of the most beautiful snow-capped peaks, lush green valleys, blue lakes and glaciers in the world, among many other wonders. The biggest proponent of this dreamland in India was Yash Chopra, a though he was not the first one to discover Switzerland for Bollywood. Showman Raj Kapoor was the first Indian to shoot in Switzerland, in 1964. He was making his first colour film, Sangam, with Vyjayanthimala, Rajendra Kumar and himself. Since it was the first time he was shooting in colour, he decided to shoot the film in foreign countries, among which was Switzerland. Three years later, Raj Kapoor’s brother Shammi Kapoor shot parts of An Evening in Paris in Switzerland, with director Shakti Samanta.