When Shah Rukh Khan was invited as a guest editor of The Times of India in 2006, he was asked to reveal his favourite role till then. He had said, “Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa is an all-time favourite.” The film, released in 1994 and directed by the late Kundan Shah, starred SRK and Suchitra Krishnamoorthi in lead roles. Juhi Chawla had a cameo at the end of the film.

Samar Khan, who wrote a book titled SRK – 25 Years Of A Life, says, “SRK did the film when he was not a star. Mani Ratnam also signed him for Dil Se.. (1998) when he was not a star, but by the time Dil Se.. released, SRK was a star. In KHKN, Shah Rukh was almost living his own love story. There were parts that were inspired by his own real life.”

Critics still appreciate the film because it is rare for mainstream cinema to portray the hero as a “loser”.

Reminiscing about the film in a Instagram post last year, SRK wrote, “At that stage, in that age — raw, uncontrolled, craft still undefined, surrounded by the best cast & crew in India and a director who I miss every day! Taught me that sometimes you lose the moment…but win everything else…I am sure somewhere, some world Sunil did too”

“It is not possible to replicate that kind of innocence in films. At that stage in life, I probably was Anna. When I had seen the first cut of the film, I fought with director Kundan Shah telling him he made me look ugly. Now when I see the film, I feel, ‘Oh my God! I was so cute’. I remember they were struggling with the title, and I suggested, “Arey, keep it ‘Anna’. For me, it was the most obvious thing. The film’s ending was probably decided by Shah Rukh to keep it on a positive note that his character had moved on.”

Shah Rukh was signed on for Rs. 25,000 for Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa. Director Kundan Shah had recalled in an interview that he had already shot a chunk of the movie, but there was no official paperwork.

On the insistence of his producers, he went to the mahurat of Deewana at Centaur Hotel in (then) Bombay and told SRK in the corridor, “Shah Rukh, yaar, the producer is harassing me, please officially sign the film.”

Kundan Shah, however, was carrying no document. So SRK pulled out a blank paper, kneeled on the floor and put his signature at the bottom right corner of that blank paper, and Kundan Shah gave him Rs. 5,000 as the signing amount.

In a past interview, the late Kundan Shah had said that KHKN came about because too many people were sitting at home with no work. He said, “After Shah Rukh, we signed on Suchitra and Deepak Tijori. Then Farah Khan came on board as the choreographer, and we got Ashutosh (Gowariker) from Circus. We had strange reasons for taking them on. Farah was a good kid but without any experience. But I liked that she kept laughing all the time. Ashu was a very ambitious person. Even then, you could see that he had a director’s bent of mind. Shah Rukh said Gauri would do his costumes, and I thought, “Good, one less thing for me to worry about!”

— With excerpts from Samar Khan’s book SRK25 Years of a Life

- The shooting schedule of KHKN went for a toss because SRK had double booked his dates

- The film was 90% finished in 1992, but it released in 1994 because Kundan Shah didn’t have SRK’s dates for the remaining 10% film

- Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa premiered at the Indian Panorama section of the 24th International Film Festival of India

- Gauri Khan did costume for SRK while Sutapa Sikdar did costume for Suchitra Krishnamoorthi

- Because of SRK’s date issues, he was once “whisked away at gunpoint” from the sets of KHKN to that of Deewana. “It was quite funny,” Kundan Shah had recalled in an interview