It was a dream come true as a child, to work with superstars like Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol and as DDLJ was huge, I knew that they were a hit pair. Also, shooting for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was like being in Disneyland for 20 days for all the kids. I was around six when I shot for the film, and it was during my summer vacations, so there were no issues of missing school. On days we didn’t shoot, we used to play games, puzzles and colouring books. I remember it used to be so much fun shooting the dance scenes. Choreographer Farah Khan and her dance troupe always made me do funny things. SRK was talking to all the kids, and he asked me about my birthday and realised that we share the same birth date (November 2). My parents often accompanied me on shoots, and my dad even played carom with SRK when he had the time.

All the young people that I meet today, still say the most famous dialogue from the film: ‘Rifat bi, mera pehla pyaar adhura reh gaya’. We thoroughly enjoyed the filming, but never expected that it was going to be so fresh even after 25 years. I remember the scene where Kajol is playing basketball and I accidentally got hit with the ball. Karan gave her such a dressing down ki, ‘How dare you do it? You must have done it deliberately’. She started clarifying and apologized to me. Kajol was a tomboy and Karan used to say, ‘Thank God she is a tomboy, it helps in the first half, but how am I going to handle her in the second half?’ Also, I can’t forget those beautiful Lucknowi suits that (designer) Manish Malhotra gave me. Karan literally wanted me to take them home, as they were made for me. Now I regret not listening to my director. I wish I had brought back at least one costume (laughs).

I was just eight when Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was shot, and honestly, I had no idea what was happening. Even when I was a child, I used to say that my favourite actor is Shah Rukh Khan. I kind of had an idea that I really like this actor and I’m getting to work with him. And now when I look back, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I played his daughter!’ The scene where SRK forgets to wear his pants, and is in his boxers, we were all laughing so much that we could barely say our lines. And when he says, ‘Driver pant nikaalo’ instead of ‘Gaadi nikaalo’, I don’t know if he did that on purpose, but I do think it was not a part of the script. I think it wasn’t his line, it just came out at the moment. It was so hilarious.

We were in Mauritius and I remember, Karan used to regale us with cheesy couplets like, ‘Aakash mein udd rahe hain kabootar, flutter flutter, flutter flutter’. Also, my older son, Aryaman, was just two at that time. One day, Kajol picked him up during breakfast, kissed and hugged him; he grinned and forced her to put him down. He wiped his face, and I was like, ‘It’s Kajol. One day you’re going to grow up and say wow’. Anupam also used to take him for walks in the garden. Location shoots were really intimate, and we all felt really sad when the schedule was over.