Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is still considered to be one of the most popular films of Hindi cinema. Starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, the 1995 film was set across UK, Europe and India and a large part of it was shot in Switzerland. Karan Johar, during a recent interview, shared that the crew of the film only consisted of 21 people when they were shooting in Switzerland. Karan was one of the assistant directors on the film.
In a chat with Jay Shetty on his podcast, Karan shared that working on DDLJ for one year was the “best learning” of his life. He shared that they did not have any extra helping hands and did everything on their own. He recalled buying accessories for the female actors on the film from railway stations for lesser cost and arranging their costumes. Recalling their time in Switzerland, he shared, “When we shot in Switzerland, we were a unit of 21 people, just 21 people making a movie in one bus. We would sit in one bus, we would drive and Adi would look at the locations and say, ‘Stop. This looks beautiful. Let’s go film’.”
Karan shared that they would ask Kajol behind a tree so she could change when they were filming on the go. “We used to take Kajol behind a tree and make her wear a saree, and Shah Rukh would change anywhere and then come and shoot and then we would get back into that bus,” he shared and added that since they were a small crew, everyone did all kinds of jobs, which meant that even the stars would carry equipments. “Everyone held equipment and walked up, like if you had to shoot on a mountain top. Shah Rukh was holding equipment and Kajol was too, literally everyone was a team. There was no additional help, support. Today, everyone is so spoilt,” he shared.
Karan said that while there are huge teams managing every department of filmmaking today, this wasn’t the case back then. The actors did not even have an entourage then. “I remember when Kajol was there, her hair and make up person did not get a visa. I was brushing her hair on set and her mother was doing her make up,” he shared and recalled another anecdote from the filming of “Tujhe Dekha To”. He shared that Kajol was supposed to wear a saree in the snow but at the time of filming, they realised that no one on set knew how to tie a saree.
“So I went by memory and rememebred how I had seen my mom wear it. We tied that saree in some way, which, according to me, looks terrible and if anybdy watches DDLJ, it is the electric blue saree she wears in the snow in the song Tujhe Dekha Toh where Shah Rukh is in a red shirt. Her saree is like a kaftan on her. We didn’t know what to do, we had no one to help us,” Karan said and concluded, “Still, we had the best time.”
