Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, popularly known as DDLJ, is one of the most popular Bollywood films. The Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol starrer is considered among the top love stories on screen. This valentine's day, fans have a chance to see the film on the big screen once again.
Raj and Simran's story became a romantic blockbuster back in 1955 and it is the longest-running film in Indian cinema. It is also regularly screened at Mumbai's Maratha Mandir theatre. The film will be re-released in 37 cities including Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Lucknow, Noida, Dehradun, Delhi, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Indore, Chennai, Vellore, and Trivandrum.
This coincides with Shah Rukh Khan's comeback film Pathaan becoming the highest-grossing Hindi film worldwide.
"Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ), the longest-running film in the history of cinema, has become synonymous with romance for India and Indians for generations since its historic release. We are constantly requested by the audience and fans, through the year, for a wider showcasing of the film so that they can again and again watch this milestone-setting film with their friends and family in theatres! This year, on the occasion of Valentine’s Day, we are making their wish come true. DDLJ will be screened across India, starting Feb 10, for a period of one week only!," Rohan Malhotra, Vice President, Distribution of YRF in a statement.
"We are thrilled to give the audience an opportunity to watch DDLJ and Pathaan, which are going to run simultaneously on the big screen, during this period. YRF has been fortunate to become home to India’s biggest cinematic IPs including DDLJ and Pathaan from YRF’s Spy Universe and we hope both these films make up for an amazing viewing experience for people during Valentine's week," he added.
Malhotra also noted that DDLJ was released for the first time around YRF's 25th-year celebrations. Another 25 years have passed since then and Pathaan is creating similar waves at the box office.
The iconic film is about Raj and Simran, two young non-resident Indians, who fall in love during a vacation in Europe. It became the most popular film in the 1990s for connecting various segments of society by promoting strong family values and bringing focus to following one's heart. While the film repeated the usual conservative agenda of family, courtship, and marriage, it also proposed that Indian family values are portable assets. The NRI Raj was shown as the good guy and Kuljeet, raised in India, was shown as the villain. This was a reversal of roles compared to other Indian films.