As DDLJ turns 20, here are 20 facts that you probably never knew about this classic

The leather jacket that SRK wore in the movie was picked up by Uday Chopra, producer Yash Chopra’s younger son, from a Harley-Davidson store in California. Uday also worked as the Assistant Director of the movie.

Bigg Boss 7 fame Armaan Kohli was the first choice to play the role of Kuljeet, Simran’s fiancé. The role later went to Parmeet Sethi, who came dressed for the audition wearing boots and a waistcoat, similar to what Aditya wanted the character to look like.

National Capital Region also has a role to play in the success of the movie. The song Tujhe Dekha To Yeh Jaana Sanam, in which Raj and Simran reunite in India, was shot in the mustard fields of Gurgaon. The farmers didn’t like the whole idea of shooting in their farms and because Shah Rukh could speak a little bit of Haryanvi, he convinced them to allow shooting.

Aditya Chopra didn’t like the idea of Kajol wearing a green outfit for her Mehendi, because he had always seen Punjabi brides-to-be wearing dresses in the tones of red. He however trusted Manish Malhotra’s gut and the outfit became a hit after the movie released.

Both of Raj’s friends from the movie, Pochy and Rocky, played by Karan Johar and Arjun Sablok went on to become directors in Bollywood.

In the sequence after Raj fails in his graduation, his father can be seen telling him about how none of his forefathers, including his grandfather Diwan Pushkar Nath saw any success in education. The fun fact is that the name of Anupam Kher’s father is actually Pushkar Nath Kher. Not only this, the portrait hung at the wall also bears an uncanny resemblance to Kher senior.

Remember the funny scene where Raj pranks Simran with lipstick marks on his chest? The marks were in reality made by Kajol, however, using her hands.

At the end of the song Ruk Ja O Dil Diwane, Raj drops Simran on the floor and we get to see an honest reaction from her. However, the reaction was not only honest but also genuine, because Aditya Chopra and Shah Rukh Khan didn’t tell Kajol about it and shot it just the way it happened.

The movie marked many debuts, that of Mandira Bedi, Parmeet Sethi, Karan Johar, Arjun Sablok, Anaita Shroff Adajania and of course, Aditya Chopra as a director.

Even though the first part of the movie was shot in London, almost all the scenes of the Chaudhary household were shot in Mumbai. Farida Jalal, who played Simran’s mother Lajo, never even went to London to shoot for the movie.

“You are not only genius, but indigenous.” This dialogue was not a part of the script but was improvised on the spot by actor Satish Shah, who played Ajit Singh, Kuljeet’s father.

The code words Opochi okoka obobi olola were created by Anupam Kher and Shah Rukh Khan on the first day of the shoot, to show the loving relationship between a father and a son.

The reason why we don’t see Himani Shivpuri, who played Kuljeet’s aunt Kammo, in the last scene of the movie, was the untimely death of her husband Gyan Shivpuri.

Pooja Ruparel, who played Simran’s sister Rajeshwari aka Chhutki, didn’t give any audition or screen test for the role.

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After the roaring success of the movie, Shah Rukh, who didn’t want to do romantic roles, thanked Aditya Chopra by sending him a signed poster of the movie, with the words “Thanks for making me the star that I am” written over it. The poster is still there in Aditya Chopra’s office. Not only this, Khan also went to Yash Chopra after dubbing for the movie and told him that this movie was his Deewar, the movie which would make him a star, what Deewar did for Amitabh Bachhchan.

Though we never got to see this in the movie, there was a scene showing Amrish Puri, who plays Simran’s father Baldev Chaudhary, dropping her off to the railway station for her Euro trip.

The 1995 movie was not the first one to have this name. There exists a movie of the same name, which released in 1980.

Shah Rukh Khan was approached four times before he said yes to the movie. He didn’t want to do a romantic film, given that he was 30 at that time, and thought that he was too old for a role like this. It was his love for Aditya and Yash Chopra that he did the role.

In the end, there was a lathi fight on the railway station, but Yash Chopra didn’t attend the shooting of this scene, because he hated action scenes.