35 years of Maine Pyaar Kiya: Bhagyashree, Mohnish Bahl recount fond memories

As Maine Pyar Kiya re-releases on the big screen 35 years, we talk to actors Bhagyashree and Mohnish Bahl going down memory lane and revisit the film's trivia.

Dosti ka ek usool hai madam — no sorry, no thank you’. Salman Khan’s iconic line from Maine Pyar Kiya still rules hearts, and as the Sooraj Barjatya directorial re-releases on the big screen 35 years after first conquering hearts, we talk to actors Bhagyashree and Mohnish Bahl going down memory lane.

Salman and Bhagyashree in Maine Pyaar Kiya

Bhagyashree's version

When the film’s intense love anthem, SP Balasubrahmanyam’s Mere Rang Mein Rangne Wali, was being shot, the film’s leading lady was facing a complete contrast in her real life. “We were shooting the most romantic song of the film, and it’s uncanny that I was going through so much stress at that time because my parents were against my marriage. After every shot, I would just burst into tears, and Salman and Sooraj ji would try to calm me down,” recalls Bhagyashree, who got married to producer Himalay Dassani a year later.

The lead pair’s chemistry and camaraderie couldn’t help but get spilled into their real-life bonding, too. “Salman was a brat and a really naughty boy on the sets. He would constantly pull my leg. That’s something I can never forget. He was also extremely protective about me. Whenever we used to go in crowds, he would protect me and make sure that I was doing okay. We bonded in a different way of innocent friendship," she tells us.

Bhagyashree in Maine Pyaar Kiya

‘Salman and I were very thick’, says Mohnish Bahl

Bahl tells that he and Salman had a great equation and the latter’s father, screenwriter Salim Khan, predicted the film’s success way in advance. “We were very thick even before the film. Salman’s father Salim uncle was the first one who believed in this film and said that it will surely work way before the release,” he says.

The producers weren’t sure I would be OK playing a negative role’

Bahl, who made his debut in 1983 with Bekaraar, gained popularity with Maine Pyar Kiya, where he played a negative role. “Salman introduced my name to Sooraj ji and the producers. They weren’t sure if I would be OK with a negative role, but I was,” says Bahl.

Mohnish Bahl in Maine Pyaar Kiya

Lesser-known facts

• The film was a huge box-office success and turned its lead actors into overnight stars. Even the props used and costumes worn by the protagonists went up for sale after the film’s release, including the ‘FRIEND’ cap.
• Actor Piyush Mishra, who was then in his third year of college at Pune’s Film & Television Institute of India, was briefly considered for the role of Prem, apart from Deepak Tijori and Vindu Dara Singh. “It wasn’t that I had landed that part. It was an early discussion, and I was majorly considered by director Sooraj Barjatya’s father (Raj Kumar Barjatya). He had come to meet me; he didn’t cast me as such. It wasn’t that big of a deal at all,” Mishra said in an earlier interview, adding, “I was a 26-year-old boy then, I could not have handled the success. Mera dimaag ud jaata. I would not have been able to handle that kind of stardom.”
• Before Bhagyashree entered the picture, model Shabina Dutt, too, auditioned for the role of the female lead, but she failed the screen test. In fact, she was the one who referred Salman’s name for the male lead. The duo had worked in a TV advertisement together previously.