"Dil Chahta Hai" Turns 18: Ten Lesser-known Facts About Preity Zinta's "Favorite" Film

Eighteen years after the release of Dil Chahta Hai, the film is still considered one of the greatest contemporary classics which stood the test of time. A few days ago, actor Preity Zinta took to his Instagram a video and a candid note to celebrate the completion of the comedy-drama.

Starring Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Khanna, Sonali Kulkarni and Preity Zinta in the lead roles, the movie marked the debut of Farhan Akhtar as a director. The film which revolves around a ground of young people and their post-collegiate life offers a new perspective on friendship and love. Its messages and stories are still relevant to today's generation.  

On the 18th anniversary of Dil Chahta Hai, let’s take a look at some interesting fact about the film.

1. Aamir was not the first choice for the film. In fact, Farhan selected Hrithik Roshan, Akshaye Khanna, and Abhishek Bachchan for the lead roles but Abhishek and Hrithik were unavailable for the movie, so Aamir was the greatest alternative.

2. Farhan met Preity Zinta for the first time in a screen test in Mumbai and promised to give her a role in his film when he had one. The first time Preity read the script, she said that it was like an all-boys’ chauvinistic film.

3. Saif agreed to feature on the song Woh Ladki Hai Kahaan with the 80s-style fashion including a red shirt paired with white trousers. However, the actor refused to round off his outfit with white shoes

4. Though Akash (Aamir) and Shalini (Preity) were supposed to fall in love in New York, the film crew has to change the location to Australia due to the freezing winter in the U.S.

5. Akash’s character took inspiration from a real-life friend of Farhan named Asad Dandekar. In fact, he played a stunt as Sonali Kulkarni’s boyfriend in the film.

6. Farhan came up with the film plot after his Las Vegas trip, and a part of it was from a story he heard from his friend.

7.  Fahan would have removed the phrase ‘chamkeele din’ from the title track of the film as he found it relevant to detergent. He also felt the phrase ‘pyaar ke ghaat’ in the song Jaane Kyun ridiculous, but his father who wrote the song convinced him to keep it.

8. Saif was about to step down from the film as it was made in sync sound, which means actors didn’t need to do the voiceover.

9. The main idea of the music video for Woh Ladki Hai Kahaan belonged to choreographer Farah Khan. However, it was the costume designer Arjun Bhasin who came up with the concept of a film within a film.

10. The entire script and even the dialogues of the film were written in English.

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