Khan has time and again said that Swades is his favourite film in his filmography, but interestingly, he never saw the final product. In a tweet, the actor had said, “Making Swades was such an emotionally overwhelming experience that I never saw the finished product. Didn’t want the feeling to end.” 

Though the film didn’t work commercially, Khan had a gut feeling about it. “I told Ashutosh Gowariker that it won’t work commercially. The film was nobly intended,” he had told Zoom in an interview, adding, “I always say it’s not the manzil but the journey that matters... Swades will always be one of my most special films.”

Swades was inspired by a 90s’ TV show, Love Stories, which had Gowariker act in it. The anthology included an episode titled Vapasi, in which Gowariker played Mohan, an NRI who returns to India for his Kaveri amma, and falls in love with a woman named Geeta. Kaveri amma’s role was played by late actor Kishori Ballal in both the iterations.

Debuting opposite Khan is a dream come true for any actor, and Gayatri Joshi, who played Geeta in Swades, got to experience it. But strangely, it remained the only film in her filmography. A beauty pageant winner who represented India at Miss International in 2000, Joshi tied the knot with businessman Vikas Oberoi and bid adieu to her acting career, barely weeks after the film’s release.

Whoever has seen Swades will never forget the iconic ‘Bijli’ dialogue and the woman who said it. On the film’s 17th anniversary, Gowariker took to social media to reveal how she was chosen from 30 women who auditioned for the character of Dadi Setu. “All had to look up at the camera and say one word – BIJLI! The woman who said it with the most emotion got the part. She was 102.”

Gowariker’s last release before Swades was the 2001 film Lagaan, which was a huge success and even got nominated at the Oscars. So, the expectations were high post that, but Gowariker revealed to The Hollywood Reporter recently that he deliberately went against the expectations: “Swades was not the film people thought I was going to make after Lagaan. People thought my next film would be about football or some such sport. If Lagaan was a drum, Swades was a flute. It was a completely inward journey. If Lagaan was about patriotism, this was about nationalism, which is something that is not external. It’s not drum beating, it’s not jingoism. It’s all internal. You have to feel it.”

- Actor Hrithik Roshan was first offered the role of Mohan Bhargava, and while it finally went to Khan, Roshan and Gowariker went on to work together in Jodhaa Akbar (2008) and Mohenjo Daro (2016).

- Swades was the first Indian film to be shot inside the NASA headquarters and the NASA Research Center in Florida (US).

- Khan reprised Mohan’s role in filmmaker Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmastra: Part One Shiva (2022). Interestingly, Mukerji had worked as an assistant director on Swades. In yet another reference to the 2004 film, Jawan (2023) saw Khan’s character Azad being raised by Kaveri Amma, played by actor Ridhi Dogra.

- Made on a budget of just Rs. 20 crore, Swades failed to recover it and earned just ₹Rs. 16 crore nett in India.

- The film went on to win two National Film Awards — Mahesh Aney won Best Cinematography, while Udit Narayan bagged Best Male Playback Singer award for Yeh Taara Woh Taara.