Once upon a time, there was a boy and girl who hated each other. The boy was arrogant, the girl far too idealistic. But then, hate blossomed into love, and created one of the greatest love stories of all time.
The sad truth is that the above paragraph can lend itself as a synopsis for a majority of Bollywood films. And yet, with the most basic premise and cliches that flow faster than beer at frat parties, Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhianiya Le Jayenge (1995) is arguably the most celebrated Hindi film of the century, still running in theatres 20 years later.
It could be the fresh chemistry between an unconventional leading lady like Kajol and the newly-turned chocolate boy Shah Rukh Khan (he had Baazigar and Darr to boast of before this), or the all-encompassing hindi-film drama, or maybe even the fact that for the first time a film could carry the simultaneous weight of traditional Indian culture merged with the NRI culture — but DDLJ was quick to attain cult status.