Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 26, 2018)

Seventeen years ago, Farhan Akhtar’s debut directorial, Dil Chahta Hai, opened in the theatres. We still remember Akash, Siddharth and Sameer with great fondness and agree that Aamir Khan, Akshaye Khanna and Saif Ali Khan were perfectly cast for the roles. So, it would surprise many to know that when Farhan took his script to Aamir, he had the actor in mind to play Sid. He believed that the broodingly intense, somewhat philosophical poet-artist, infatuated with an older woman who doesn’t reciprocate his romantic feelings, would appeal to his idol. Aamir listened to the story of three friends and picked out Akash for himself.

Perhaps it was because the urbane charmer, very much a today’s guy, was the polar opposite of Bhuvan, the farmer-cricketer of of his period drama Lagaan which released in the same year, on June 15, given Aamir’s now-famous 360-degree turnarounds. Or maybe it was because Akash, the rich and arrogant cynic who doesn’t believe in love but in the end crashes his lady love Shalini’s (Preity Zinta) wedding to go down on one knee and profess his feelings just when she has resigned herself to a life with her boorish fiancĂ©, was unlike any hero he had played...Except for the filmi denouement. Farhan justified this, revealing that he had to make it really difficult for the I-won’t-succumb Akash, and what could be more difficult than a very public proposal at a big fat Indian wedding where it’s sacrilege to covet another man’s wife-to-be. He actually knew a guy like Akash whose love story had inspired the film. Meanwhile, his mother, scriptwriter Honey Irani, pointed out that he had landed the rare opportunity of working with the actor of his dreams in his very first film.

Farhan’s sister and his casting director, Zoya, then took the role of Sid to Abhishek Bachchan but got the thumbs down presumably because the actor didn’t want to do a three-hero film. Akshaye, who was rebelling against run-of-the-mill hero roles at the time, and had taken off for a three-month introspective vacation to the US after Taal, however found Farhan’s script refreshingly different. The look was new, the feel young and the story broke every rule in the book. It caught his fancy and he embraced Sid like a long-lost soulmate making many believe after the film’s release that the role was an extension of him. Akshaye however was quick to dispel that notion, saying with his distinctive tongue-in-cheek humour, “I have never gone fishing in my life, tried my hand at painting or even had a crush on an older woman.” Ah well, we always knew Akshaye could ‘act’!

For Sameer, who starts out being in love with the idea of love, before finding true love in Pooja (Sonali Kulkarni), Farhan had decided on Saif Ali Khan but the actor, reeling from some bad career choices, took a long time to give his nod, at one point almost saying ‘no’. Saif later confessed that he had never had so much fun shooting a film and his goofy “Jise Dhoondta Hoon… Woh Ladki Hai Kahan” had everyone rolling in the aisles.

What was particularly hair-raising for the actors, besides their reel life adventures, was that Farhan’s stylist, Avan Contractor, insisted on giving each of them a new look. Akshaye’s hair was almost scraped off while Saif’s was cut short and gelled. Aamir got spikes and a goatee. The tiny triangle of hair on Aamir’s chin was the subject of much speculation, but it took Preity to boldly march up to him, and dimples flashing, ask cheekily if his daadhi was real or fake. Aamir told her that it had taken him three months to grow it just right. His ‘look’ is still talking!