DDLJ’s marathon 1009 week-run ends!

February 20, 2015 14:47

The famous blockbuster movie that established the career of Bollywood veteran Shahrukh Khan and actress Kajol, was taken down from the Marathi Mandir cinema after a record-breaking 1009 week run.

Mumbai’s Marathi Cinema first screened the movie back in 1995 (the year of its release), when Shahrukh was a relatively unknown actor and had still not achieved superstardom status. The film rose to prominence and even till today, is cherished by fans of Bollywood around the world. DDLJ is also hailed as one of the best rom-coms of all time. 

"Of course YRF obliged from 13th Feb 2015. However, while the theatre management was happy to continue the film for as long as it continued to draw in the audiences, owing to logistical issues of their staff having to work inordinately long hours to accommodate an additional early morning show, it was mutually decided to end the films historic and record breaking run," it said in a statement.

The cult romantic film, which marked the directorial debut of Aditya Chopra, completed its 1000 weeks in December last year. Shah Rukh and Kajol had got together at Yash Raj Films studio on the occasion to relive many moments of the film, which catapulted them to the star status.

The film, also known as DDLJ in short form, is written and directed by Yash Chopra and produced by Aditya Chopra. It tells the stories of a young Indian couple, Raj Malhotra (Shahrukh Khan) and Simran Singh (Kajol Devgan), two Indians living in London. Both fall in love and aim to get married. However, things take a turn for the worse as Simran’s parents are adamant on Simran marrying another boy, her stern father Baldev Singh (Amrish Puri) taking a stand against her love for Raj.

What made Dil Wale Dulhania Le Jayenge a blockbuster success also was the fact that it had great songs to back up the movie plot. With the legendary voices of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Udit Narayan, and Kumar Sanu, the soundtrack is a fan favorite even to this day. The composition by Jatin Lalit and lyrics penned by Anand Bakhshi are the reason that the hit songs of DDLJ continue to be fan favorites even today, most notably Mehndi Laga Ke Rakhna, Tujhe Dekha Toh and Zara Sa Jhoom Loon Main.

After celebrations marking the 1,000-week landmark in November last year, screenings were moved to an earlier time and audiences dropped off, according to a report in Mumbai’s DNA newspaper. Shahrukh had even expressed his joy at the film’s 1,000 week-run last year. It’s been 20 years for this film and I feel honoured that I was part of this film,” said the actor, who is now one of Bollywood biggest stars.

DDLJ had broken previous records and won the most number of Filmfare awards for a single movie at the time, an impressive number of 10 awards.