DDLJ turns 30: Yash Chopra and Aditya Chopra were at loggerheads during the filming, had a ‘father-son issue’

In the Netflix documentary The Romantics, Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar recalled witnessing the creative differences and on-set clashes between father and son, Yash Chopra and Aditya Chopra.

By: Entertainment Desk

Mumbai | October 17, 2025 04:09 PM IST

3 min read

Aditya Chopra last directed Befikre in 2016.

Anupam Kher recalled that Yash Chopra had a lukewarm response after hearing the DDLJ script from Aditya Chopra.

Next week marks 30 years since Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge first hit theatres. Undoubtedly one of the most defining films of Bombay cinema, DDLJ changed the game for everyone involved. It turned Shah Rukh Khan into a household name across the length and breadth of the country and established Kajol as one of the leading ladies of her generation. Its dialogues seeped into the fabric of India’s socio-political reality, its music became legendary, and it marked the directorial debut of Aditya Chopra, who would go on to become a towering figure in Indian film production.

However, while much of the credit for the film’s success is rightly attributed to Aditya Chopra’s vision, the journey of making DDLJ wasn’t as seamless as the final product might suggest. As revealed in the Netflix docu-series The Romantics, Aditya and his father, the late veteran filmmaker Yash Chopra, often found themselves at creative odds during the film’s making.

Shah Rukh Khan recalls this tension vividly in the documentary: “It’s a very sweet relationship, you know. You see a father and son, both of them are extremely… how do you say it? It’s an understatement to call them geniuses at their work. And both respect each other’s genius a lot. But there was a bit of a father-son issue, if I may say so. As directors on set, they were very different. Yash ji would never take a retake, and the biggest fights between Yashji and Adi on set were about this. He would ask him, ‘Why are you taking a retake?’ And Adi would say, ‘I’m doing it safely.’ To which Yashji would reply, ‘Are you a fireman that you need safety?’”

Even Karan Johar, who was an assistant director on the set, recalled witnessing the ongoing creative battles between the two. “I saw sometimes Yash uncle struggle with Adi. I remember we were shooting and Adi decided that he would break the Yash Chopra stereotype, and give Kajol a silk saree and not a chiffon. Because he didn’t want to do what a Yash Chopra would do. And I kept watching a very distressed Yash Chopra, who was like ‘this fabric will not fly.’ And if it doesn’t fly, it won’t look beautiful. And I was like ‘Yash uncle, I’m trying very hard but he is not listening to me.'”

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Actor Anupam Kher, who played Shah Rukh Khan’s father in DDLJ, shared a similar memory in the same documentary. He recalled the very first narration of the script: “It was a three-hour long narration, and after it ended, there was a pause and Yash ji looked at me with an expression, ‘What’s happening’?” Even Hrithik Roshan remembered that the narration got a very lukewarm response.

Of course, when the film finally released, all of Yash Chopra’s doubts were put to rest. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge went on to become a monumental success, a film that not only redefined romance for an entire generation but continues to play in theatres even after three decades.

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