Aditya Chopra: Fall Of The DDLJ Man

Aditya Chopra conceived Befikre as a modern antithesis to DDLJ. But it has been a modern disaster.

- Giridhar Jha

In a memorable sequence from Dil­ wale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ), Raj, played by a young Shahrukh Khan, tells Simran (Kajol), “Sen­orita, bade bade deshon mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hain (such small things keep happening in big countries)”—a dialogue which sounded romantic enough to send successive generations of Bollywood aficionados into raptures ever since the blockbuster was released in 1995.

How popular this catchy line went on to become could be gauged from the fact that even US President Barack Obama, of all people, quoted it at one of his eng­agements during his official trip to India last year, apparently to keep the hosts in good humour, if not as an aid to foster stronger bilateral ties.

However, it was not for nothing that a visiting dignitary, as important as the US president, chose to refer to a mainstream Bollywood movie dialogue in the midst of his hectic diplomatic itinerary. DDLJ, after all, broke a surfeit of box­office records, including longest­run in a cinema hall, es­tablished Shahrukh as a superstar and, above all, evolved into a cult love story set against the backdrop of a milieu redolent of good, old Indian values and traditions.

But Aditya Chopra, the man behind the iconic film that has been running non­-stop at Maratha Mandir theatre in Mumbai since its release, thinks the movie has become dated now. He believes the world has undergone a sea change and so have the definitions of love since then. According to him, if Raj would tell the Simran of modern generation that he would take her hand only if Babuji (her father) permits, she would tell him:“Dude, I am going; when you patch up with my Dad, come and find me, and we will take it from there.”