Dil To Pagal Hai

Dil To Pagal Hai
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Yash Chopra
Produced by	Yash Chopra Aditya Chopra
Screenplay by	Aditya Chopra Tanuja Chandra Pamela Chopra Yash Chopra
Story by	Aditya Chopra
Starring	Shah Rukh Khan Madhuri Dixit Karisma Kapoor Akshay Kumar
Music by	Uttam Singh
Cinematography	Manmohan Singh
Edited by	V. Karnik
Distributed by	Yash Raj Films
Release date	31 October 1997 (1997-10-31)
Running time	180 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	est.₹90 million[1]
Box office	est.₹718.6 million[1]

Dil To Pagal Hai (translation: The heart is crazy, Hindi pronunciation: [d̪ɪl t̪oː paːgəl ɦɛː]), is a 1997 Indian musical romance film directed by Yash Chopra. The film follows the love lives of the members of a musical troupe, in which two dancers played by Madhuri Dixit and Karishma Kapoor compete for the love of a choreographer played by Shah Rukh Khan. It was Khan's third collaboration with Yash Raj Films after Darr (1993) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). The soundtrack was composed by Uttam Singh, while the lyrics were written by Anand Bakshi. The film was screened retrospective, during the 2014 International Film Festival of India in the Celebrating Dance in Indian cinema section.^[2]

Dil To Pagal Hai was a major commercial success, and became the highest grossing Indian film of the year worldwide. The film garnered praise for its storyline and soundtrack. Additionally, the film won three National Film Awards and eight Filmfare Awards. The film has attained cult status over the years^[3][4][5] and is regarded as one of Chopra's best.^[6][7][8][9]

Plot

Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan) and Nisha (Karisma Kapoor) are members of a massive dance troupe that performs dance-based musical plays. They are the best of friends, although Nisha is secretly in love with Rahul. Rahul announces his desire to direct a musical named Maya. The members of the troupe, including Nisha, have their doubts about the title character, "Maya", who Rahul describes as a girl who believes in true love and waiting for her prince charming who will surely turn up and take her away. Meanwhile, Pooja (Madhuri Dixit) is introduced, an amazing dancer, classically trained as well, and passionate about dancing. Having been orphaned at a young age, she has been raised by close friends of her parents.

Pooja and Rahul have a string of near-misses as they run into each other time and again. Each of these instances is marked by a tune playing in the background, that registers with Pooja. During rehearsals for the play, Nisha injures her leg and the doctor says she cannot dance for a few months. Rahul needs a new woman to play the lead role in the play. He comes across Pooja dancing one day and believes she is perfect for the role. He begs her to come to their rehearsals and she agrees. Rahul and Pooja become close friends. Doted upon by her foster family, Pooja is soon taken to Germany by her guardian's son Ajay (Akshay Kumar), her childhood best friend who has been in London for months. Just as Ajay leaves to fly to England, he proposes to Pooja. In a dilemma, she ends up accepting it.

Nisha soon returns from the hospital and is upset that she has been replaced. Upon learning that Rahul loves Pooja, she becomes very jealous of her. Knowing that Rahul does not reciprocate her love, she decides to leave for London. Throughout rehearsals, Rahul and Pooja find themselves falling for one another. When Rahul drops Pooja home one day, he starts whistling his tune, making Pooja realize that she has fallen for the man with the tune she so often heard. The next day, the two go to meet Pooja's old dance tutor, who Pooja addresses as Tai (Aruna Irani), who figures that the two are blatantly in love. At the wedding of two members of the dance troupe, Rahul and Pooja share an intimate moment but are unsure how to fully express their love.

A few days before the premiere, Ajay arrives at the rehearsal hall to surprise Pooja while telling everyone that he is her fiancé. Rahul is heartbroken but tries not to show it. Nisha, who has returned, notices Rahul's devastation and explains how she too was devastated when he did not love her in return. Rahul edits the end of the play to reflect his heartbreak, in contrast to his usual style of always giving a happy ending. On the night of the premiere, as Rahul and Pooja's characters are about to break up on stage, Ajay plays a recorded tape Pooja was going to send him before his proposal where she described how she felt about Rahul. Ajay is indirectly telling Pooja that she and Rahul are meant to be together. Pooja now realizes she truly loves Rahul and the two confess their love on stage as the audience applauds them, giving the play a happy ending once again. Also, backstage, Ajay ends up asking Nisha whether she is already married or not (implying him getting interested in her).

Cast

• Shah Rukh Khan as Rahul
• Karisma Kapoor as Nisha
• Madhuri Dixit as Pooja
• Akshay Kumar as Ajay
• Farida Jalal as Pooja's guardian / Ajay's mother
• Deven Verma as Pooja's guardian / Ajay's father
• Aruna Irani as Pooja's teacher
• Ameesha Patel as Backstage Speaker
• Shahid Kapoor as Background dancer

Production

Dil To Pagal Hai was the second of Chopra's four consecutive films to star Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role. It was the third film to feature Shah Rukh Khan opposite Madhuri Dixit. The film was originally titled "Maine To Mohabbat Kar Li" and "Tevar" before Yash Chopra finally settled on "Dil To Pagal Hai" as the title.

Originally the first choice for the role, Kapoor was hesitant to take on the project.^[10] The role had been offered to Manisha Koirala. Manisha Koirala refused the role and Chopra offered it to Juhi Chawla as Chopra wanted the two leading actresses of that time to appear together on screen but Chawla did not want to play second fiddle to Dixit especially after playing the main lead actress in Chopra's Darr. Kajol and Raveena Tandon were next; however, Kajol deemed the role insubstantial while Raveena Tandon was considering quitting her career at the time. The role then was also offered to actress Urmila Matondkar who accepted, but left the film after a day of shooting. No leading lady of that time was willing to take the risk of playing the second lead to Madhuri. Chopra re-approached Kapoor with the film and she agreed to take up the challenge and was finally signed for the role.^[11][12] She felt that despite the short screen time, a lot could be achieved with her role.^[13]

In addition to writing the story, Chopra co-produced the film along with M Vakil under the banner Yash Raj Films. The script was written by Chopra, his son Aditya and wife Pamela. The film's costumes were handled together by Manish Malhotra, Karan Johar and Salman. Manmohan Singh was the cinematographer. The choreography was handled by Farah Khan and Shiamak Davar.^[14] This was one of Shahid Kapoor's first appearances on film. He was a background dancer in the song "Le Gayi".^[15]

Chopra rejected 54 dresses created by Manish Malhotra for Dixit's character, choosing a salwar kameez over others.^[16] It was the first Bollywood film to be shot in Baden-Baden and Europa Park, both German tourist attractions. It was made on a budget of ₹90 million.^[1]

Soundtrack

Dil To Pagal Hai
Soundtrack album by Uttam Singh
Released	27 August 1997 (1997-08-27)[17]
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	YRF Music
Producer	Yash Chopra
Uttam Singh chronology
Jazbaat (1994) Dil To Pagal Hai (1997) Dushman (1998)
External audio Audio Jukebox on YouTube

The soundtrack of Dil To Pagal Hai includes ten songs. The songs for the film were composed by Uttam Singh. Lyrics were written by Anand Bakshi.^[18] The music was a major hit among the public, with the album becoming the best selling Bollywood soundtrack of the year.^[19] In 2008, Chopra launched an unreleased song from the soundtrack, sung by Mangeshkar.^[20]

Release

The film is credited with transforming choreography in Hindi cinema.^[21]

Awards

Winner

References

External links

• Dil To Pagal Hai on IMDb