Dil Chahta Hai (DCH) is now considered a cult classic. Starring Saif Ali Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshaye Khanna and Preity Zinta, the film created a new thinking in Bollywood. Dil Chahta Hai, which revolves around the lives of three friends who go through many transitions and a kind of metamorphosis, became a blockbuster and created a lot of buzz.
Not only that, Farhan Akhtar, who wrote and directed the film, jumped into the limelight and became a director to be reckoned with. Now that the film is almost 15 years old, here are some lesser-known facts about him.
Farhan Akhtar, who made his directorial and screenwriting debut with Dil Chahta Hai, initially thought of casting Akshaye Khanna, Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan for the lead roles. While Akshaye was initially considered for the role of Aakash, Duggu was considered for the role of Siddharth aka Sid and Saif Ali Khan as Sameer.
However, according to an IMDB report, Hrithik turned down the role, which went to Abhishek Bachchan, who also did not appear in the film. Farhan then cast Aamir Khan, revised the script of the film and swapped the role of Akshaye Khanna for Aamir. Apparently, Farhan had to convince Akhtar Dimple Kapadia to play the role of divorcee Tara Jaiswal.
Farhan was apparently inspired by his diary, in which he recounted his trips to Las Vegas, his time in New York, and a story a friend told him. According to a report on En.wikipedia.org, the characters of Aakash (Aamir Khan) and Shalini (Preity Zinta) appear to be inspired by one of Farhan’s friends and the other roles by Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, the report added.
The film was made with an estimated budget of Rs 140,00,000,000. According to a report on Specials.rediff.com, Farhan was quoted as saying that the Australian portion of the film was to be shot in New York, but since it would have been winter, they decided otherwise.
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