The film ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’, released in the year 1999, remembers because of the colorful clothes of its stars, the luxurious havelis, miles of desert, the Vijay Vilas Palace of Mandvi, and the silent moments between the pavilions built on small platforms. The film is a canvas on which its director Sanjay Leela Bhansali had sculpted love. Some say that this film was made on the story of Anil Kapoor’s film ‘Woh Saat Din’, some linked its story to Maitreyi Devi’s book ‘Na Hanyate’. But, Sanjay Leela Bhansali himself has told that he had made this film on Gujarati writer Zaverchand Meghani’s play ‘Shetal Ne Kathe’ and Meghani himself reached Mumbai to meet Sanjay Leela Bhansali with this story. Like the story of the film ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ reached Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The heroine of this story Nandini i.e. Aishwarya Rai also reached Sanjay Leela Bhansali herself.
Aishwarya Rai and Salman Khan
Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali has mastered the filming of songs. When he was an assistant to Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Vidhu used to leave the shooting of songs to Bhansali. Bhansali’s directorial skills have been instrumental in filming the songs of the film ‘1942 A Love Story. It is a matter of those days when Sanjay’s coin came into the Hindi cinema world with his first film as a director, ‘Khamoshi the Musical’. In this first film, Sanjay Leela Bhansali actually wanted to take Kareena Kapoor as his first choice but things did not work out.
Actress Manisha Koirala, who came to the film after Kareena’s refusal, did such a thing as ‘Khamoshi”s Annie Briganza that Bhansali was confused about who would be Nandini of ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’. Sanjay’s heart was still stuck on Kareena Kapoor. And, the mind was saying that Nandini’s character should be given to Manisha Koirala. But then something happened that even Sanjay Leela Bhansali himself did not expect.
Aishwarya and Ajay Devgan
There is also an interesting story of how Aishwarya Rai Bachchan came in the film ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’. Aishwarya was offered Aamir Khan’s film ‘Raja Hindustani’ in those days, she could not do this film due to dates, then she went to its special screening so that people associated with the film would not feel bad. At the same time, Aishwarya first met Sanjay Leela Bhansali. She had become Miss World. She was full of confidence. As she turned to face Bhansali, she extended her right hand and as Bhansali held her hand, she said, “Hi! I’m Aishwarya Rai and I liked ‘Your movie Khamoshi the musical’.”
When Aishwarya’s voice hit Bhansali’s ears, he realized that he was constantly watching her eyes. Big deer-like eyes. The color was like a calm lake and the gleam of those eyes captivated Sanjay Leela Bhansali. A voice came in his mind, this is my Nandini. In a way, Aamir Khan had a big hand in joining Bhansali to Aishwarya Rai, after all, on his invitation, Aishwarya had reached the special show of the film ‘Raja Hindustani’.
Aishwarya Rai
Sanjay Leela Bhansali had Sameer from the beginning of his film ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’. Yes, he had seen everyone from Aamir Khan to Shah Rukh Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor, and Akshay Kumar fit into the groove for the role of Vanraj, the second hero of the film, but he was just Ajay Devgan. Ajay Devgan had also come out of the action hero image by then and had accumulated a coin of his impressive effortless acting in films like ‘Ishq’, ‘Major Saab’, ‘Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha’ and ‘Zakhm’. So Ajay Devgan fits perfectly in the role of Vanraj.
In the story of Sameer and Nandini’s love, the bubbliness and mischief, which was to be witnessed by the grandmother of the Durbar family i.e. Zohra Sehgal at the time of the shooting, was brought to the screen by Bhansali from the pages. But, when Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai, who played Sameer and Nandini for the film, met for the first time, real love fell in their hearts. In this meeting again the same incident was repeated which happened with Bhansali at the special screening of ‘Raja Hindustani’. This time Salman drowned in Aishwarya’s deep eyes like a lake and then sank in such a way that the whole thing became a trap.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali worked very hard on the music of the film ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’. He worked on it with Ismail Darbar for two consecutive years before the shooting of the film started. The lyricist of the film is Mehboob. The music of the film is amazing. Even today, on the day of Karva Chauth, every loving couple sings “Chand chupa badal main”. The voices of Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik have also made an impact in this song very romantic. Kavita Krishnamurthy became the voice of Aishwarya’s character in the rest of the songs and she has also sung amazingly from ‘Nimbuda’ to ‘Aankhon Ki Gustakhiyan’ and ‘Albela Sajan’.