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Mani Ratnam and Shah Rukh Khan’s sole collaboration Dil Se clocked 26 years today. While the movie was not a blockbuster as most of the SRK movies of that time used to be, it continues to be one of the best flicks in the filmography of Mani Ratnam, Shah Rukh , and the leading lady Manisha Koirala.
Be it the songs, which were both composed musically and choreographed to perfection, or the acting by the lead actors everything just made Dil Se a cult classic.
7 shades of love
Ancient Arabic literature denotes that love has 7 shades. And inspired by that Mani Ratnam aimed to capture that in Dil Se. From attraction, infatuation, love to reverence, worship, obsession, and finally death- Shah Rukh Khan’s character in this movie went through all that.
SRK did not wear a harness for Chaiyya Chaiyya
Chaiyya Chaiyya continues to be one of the biggest hits of SRK’s career which was shot on a moving train. Interestingly, despite the song being shot from an elevated position, the superstar refused to wear a harness while doing the song which in a way was quite dangerous.
Not Manisha but Mani wanted Kajol for Dil Se
Mani Ratnam first offered Dil Se to Kajol who chose Kuch Kuch Hota Hai due to date issues. However, today it feels that Manisha Koirala was just perfect for the role of Meghna and has done a wonderful job in the movie.
A few parade scenes are real
Some of the parade scenes that are shown in the movie are real and were caught during the parade of India’s 50th Independence Day.
Mani dropped Shilpa due to weight issues
The song Chal Chaiyya Chaiyya made Malaika Arora very popular and to date, she is recognised for it among Bollywood fans. However, the song was first offered to Shilpa Shirodkar. However, later on, the Roja director dropped her due to weight issues, and Malla who was a model at that time was roped in.
Tigmanshu gave the final touches to dialogues
Dil Se was the first Hindi movie by Mani Ratnam . That is why he hired Tigmanshu Dhulia to write Hindi dialogues. The dialogues were first written by Sujatha in Tamil, translated into English and then Tigmanshu translated them in Hindi and gave these dialogues final touches. Even Shah Rukh Khan contributed to the process since being from Delhi he is good in Hindi.
Pink tea became a problem for the director
A lot of scenes from the movie were shot in Ladakh where you do not get cow or buffalo milk but have to depend on Yak milk. As a result, the tea that was made with this Yak milk was pink in colour and tasted very different from the regular one. It created a bit problem for everyone, especially Mani Ratnam.
