5 QUESTIONS
BILLBOARD
BOX OFFICE
MAKING WAVES
MEMORIES
MOVIES CHAT
QUOTE MARTIAL
REVIEWS
ROUGH CUTS
SHORT TAKES
SOUTHERN SPICE
THE LIST
WISH THE STARS
ARCHIVES

And they live happily ever after...

Contrary to celluloid romances in India, wherein protagonists defy parents' wishes and societal norms to marry, 20-plus film-maker Aditya Chopra's maiden venture Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge continues to mesmerise audiences as it runs a 'paise vasool' show for a consecutive 250th week, ending this Friday.

The film, which was released some time in October 1995, has crossed 196 weeks (almost four years) in a matinee show at Maratha Mandir, a theatre located in South Central Mumbai.

"DDLJ is a not merely a film, but a statement which stresses upon the fact that today's youth yearns to go back to his roots, his customs, his traditions," celebrated film icon Yash Chopra, who spoke to PTI on behalf of his son Aditya, said.

Film pundits consider the film a trendsetter of the 90s, which showed superstar Shahrukh Khan emerge a winner, managing to convince his prospective father-in-law of his sincerity.

Chopra agrees: "This very fact that a London-bred boy, instead of eloping braves an emotional conflict, wins over his girlfriend's family and then marries her, is what gave the film its uniqueness" he said.

'Dilwale' was a tremendous success in the overseas circuit, and has mopped up more than Rs 200 million in the European and American markets, industry sources said.

"DDLJ revived the international theatre market of Hindi films, which was almost killed by the video circuit," says Sahadev Ghai, business executive, Yash Raj Films.

After the Rajashri Production's mega-hit Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Dilwale was the second largest grosser, he said.

Trade pundits too think that the non-resident Indian angle and the exotic locales in the film worked wonders for it.

"Children born to Indian-born parents were attracted by the strong-to-the-roots feeling conveyed by the film and hence it clicked all over the world," Komal Nahta, editor of Film Information and a rediff.com columnist, said.

Seconding Nahta, Chopra said, "Indians living abroad suffer from cultural insecurity and Adi's film made them more vulnerable towards their very own desh ki mitti (motherland)."

In fact, Dilwale earned Chopra an award from the British Tourism Authority for promoting Britain as a destination.

Nahta considers DDLJ an out-n-out entertainer as it has good music, classic performances, scintillating outdoor shoots and above all a clean plot with a moral message.

"The repeat audience at Maratha Mandir belong to this school of thought," he observes.

According to Nahta, the film has mopped up a net business of approximately Rs 500 million, of which Rs 170 million came from the Mumbai territory alone.

He also attributed the success of Dilwale to the heart- rending performances by stars Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Amrish Puri, Anupam Kher and Farida Jalal.

Referring to new generation directors like son Aditya, veteran film-maker Yash Johar's son Karan Johar and Suraj Barjatiya, Yash Chopra said they were 'complete directors' who conceive their film, nurture it and also release it without any second or third party participation.

"Dilwale is Adi's creation. I would have never thought of making the film with his kind of a story," Chopra confessed.

However, film critics strongly disagree with the Dilwale storyline, but nevertheless attribute its success to the hero's silent traditional approach to win back his girl.

"The film is clearly marketed for the overseas audience and it expresses amazing fascination for the patriarchial system, made explicit very persuasively," well-known film critic Mythili Rao says.

The message that the young film-maker wanted to give was that deep inside us, there seems to be a trend towards accepting the validity of our traditional system, she said.

Lauding Aditya's efforts, Rao says he had mastered his father's school of making romances and present it to the 90s generation.

Yet, Deepa Gehlot takes a tough stand on Dilwale and says that it was not easy to perceive a young man from the West as returning to his roots for love.

"There is a cultural difference between Indians born abroad and those born in India and are settled abroad, the film was a sugar coated pill meant for gulping down one's own sorrows and seeking happiness in the Alps or the lush yellow sarson fields," she said.

"There are no special celebrations for Dilwale as all of us are busy with the post-production of our new film," says Chopra.

Meanwhile, Aditya Chopra is ready to set the silver screen afire with Mohabattein, yet another boy-meets-girl romance, to be released on October 26, 2000.

"Mohabattein, like Dilwale, is also very close to our heart...like we say in our punch line for Dilwale...come fall in love..." says a smiling Chopra.