Bijay Anand, who played Rahul Bajaj in Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, reveals that the reason he took a step back from films 17 years ago was the film itself! “They (the makers) dubbed my dialogues in a voice that sounded very weak and squeaky. It was very embarrassing as my voice is not like that. I was so hurt and felt like I didn’t want to be a part of this industry,” he says, adding, “Dubbing my voice just so that the hero (Ajay Devgn) looks better or for whatever reason they had, just left me shocked. I don’t know even if I’ll ever recover from that shock. I even turned down very big roles at that time.”

Anand, who has seen the film just once, adds, “Even when it came on TV, my family would say, ‘Oh, look’, but I just used to shut it off,” recalls Anand, who has talked about this for the first time in his life.

However, Anand, who returned to the screen in 2015 with the show Siya Ke Ram, has moved on from the experience and has a different outlook on work. “I don’t depend on how the industry is looking anymore. I am a successful yoga teacher and I don’t need the industry anymore. I am doing projects that I want to do, that would make me happy,” he ends.

When Kashmera Shah was approached for Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, she was relatively new to the industry and had just signed Yes Boss (1997), and is glad that the makers gave her the part of Nisha. “I perfectly fit the desired appearance for the role and the team of Yes Boss assured them of my talent,” she recalls.

On set, things, however, weren’t very pleasant with actor Bijay Anand, whom she was paired opposite in the film. For her introduction scene, Shah was asked to kiss Anand: “Kissing on screen was a very big deal 25 years ago. That scene took a lot of retakes as it had to be done in an elevator and Anand kept getting the angle and movement wrong. Ajay (Devgn) and Kajol got very uncomfortable. Ajay came to Bijay and said, ‘I can’t make this girl do this scene again and again. Why don’t you damn stand on your mark?’”

Shah also recalls Anand’s entitled behaviour on set: “We went to Seychelles to shoot and Bijay started acting like a star. Subah-subah orders dene lagte thhe, ‘Mere shoes laao, mera ye kaam karo’. I used to wonder why he behaved like that.”