Twenty-six years after he made Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Aditya Chopra is set to make his original script of the film which featured an American boy and an English girl — but as a Broadway Musical. Long ago, Yash Chopra had told this writer that Aditya had wanted to cast Tom Cruise in the lead role for the 1995 film, but was advised against it, and Shah Rukh Khan was cast as Raj.
Now, Aditya is set to direct DDLJ again. He strongly feels Broadway and Indian films are ‘two long-lost lovers separated in time’ because of their intrinsic similarities — both celebrate heart-warming stories and human emotions through music and dance.
Aditya has been working on this passion project for the past three years and has roped in a diverse team, comprising some of the best talents of Broadway and India. “It was in the summer of 1985. I was 14 and on a holiday in London. My parents took my brother and me for our first musical theatre experience. The lights dimmed, the curtains lifted and what unfolded in the next 3 hours left me speechless and stunned. Till then, I was a kid who was an avid movie watcher and what I loved the most was big screen Indian blockbusters. But that day what I saw on stage blew my mind. I couldn’t believe that this kind of spectacle could be created live on stage,” reminisces Aditya.
“But the most significant aspect that resonated with me was how similar musical theatre was to our Indian films,” he shares. “It was not just the fact that both use songs to tell the story, it was much more than that, it was the feeling they evoked which was exactly the same. The burst of colours, the heightened drama, the passionate singing, the unabashed dancing, a classic story, a happy end. It filled me with the same joy and emotions that a good Indian film does. I realised then that, worlds apart, languages apart, western musical theatre and Indian films are two long-lost lovers separated in time.”
Cut to the present, he says, “I’m embarking on my most ambitious project. I started my career with DDLJ. The film created history and changed my life and that of many others.”
It’s a sort of coming back full circle for Aditya. “As a 23-year-old greatly influenced by H-wood and American pop culture, I thought I would make a couple of Indian films and then I would be off to Hollywood and make DDLJ with Tom Cruise,” he reveals.
“That didn’t happen. DDLJ released in 1995 and became the longest-running film of Indian cinema. It gave me my identity and kickstarted an amazing journey for which I’ll always be grateful,” he says. “I am nervous and incredibly excited. I’m a hardcore cinema guy, I have never done theatre in my life, and here I am, trying to pull off the craziest ambition of my life,” says the filmmaker.
He says, during the three years when this passion project was being developed, he learnt a lot and discovered the unbelievable talent that the Broadway community has.
