DDLJ’s train scene shooting was pure chaos, reveals Kajol: Raj should’ve pulled the chain
Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol’s iconic ‘ja Simran ja’ scene from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is arguably one of the best things to happen to Indian cinema. But shooting it was not easy, Kajol says.
There are dozens of great train scenes in Hindi films, but Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol’s ‘ja Simran ja’ scene from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge remains one of the most memorable (heart-warming and heart-racing) sequences in Bollywood. Any fan of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge can tell you about the urge he or she gets to belt out Amrish Puri’s iconic line, “ja Simran ja, jee le apni zindagi,” any chance they get.
Now, Kajol tells Huffington Post in an interview how they shot the famous scene and, apparently, it wasn’t easy. On top of shooting the scene in the smoldering heat, Kajol said the train would take 20 minutes to come back every time they had to do a retake. But getting cranky and having her hair messed up was totally worth it for the iconic shot, Kajol says.
“Honestly, we were worried about the heat and getting cranky, my hair was frizzling out, the train wasn’t moving at the right speed that it should have. We couldn’t do retakes because the train had to go ahead and come back which would take some 20 minutes. It was a mess. Actually, Raj should have just pulled the chain instead of making me run like a crazy person. In hindsight, of course, it’s become an iconic scene but I can’t take any credit for it. It’s all Adi (director Aditya Chopra),” Kajol told Huff Post.
In Aditya Chopra’s beautiful NRI romance, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Kajol’s Simran and Shah Rukh’s Raj meet on a humdrum train journey. On the short trip across Europe they discover they are extreme, complimentary opposites. And then there follows much sadness as Kajol tries to forget the greatest thing that’s ever happened to her to marry a family friend from India, to honour her father’s wishes.
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