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Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) recently completed 30 years, and even today, the film continues to hold the record as the longest-running Hindi film. The film is widely regarded not only as a landmark in Hindi cinema but also as arguably the finest work of its director, Aditya Chopra, who made his directorial debut with it. He was credited for writing the screenplay, developing the story, and penning the dialogues. However, it has long been reported that he did not write the film entirely on his own. Honey Irani, known for her writing contributions to major Yash Raj Films projects like Darr and Lamhe, is believed to have co-written the screenplay. She never got the credit for it, and the experience, reportedly, led her to make a lifelong decision never to work again with either Yash Chopra or Aditya Chopra.
Three decades later, Honey Irani’s son, Farhan Akhtar, has revisited the controversy while promoting his film 120 Bahadur. Speaking to Mid-Day India, he opened up about how painful the situation had been for their family, especially given their long-standing personal ties with the Chopras. “Obviously, it was very heart-breaking, I think, for all concerned, because the relationship that my mom shared, we shared, with Yashji, with Pam Aunty (Pamela Chopra, wife of Yash Chopra), with that family, you know what I mean? It was like one family. And for me, they still are my brothers when I think of them (Aditya Chopra and Uday Chopra).”
Farhan added that with time, he has chosen to let go of the bitterness and make peace with the past. “So I’m just really glad that now all of that is behind us. Things happen between people who love each other, and at some point, you have to find it within yourself to move on, forgive and forget. So I’m really glad that’s happened, because they are important people in all our lives. It was unfortunate what happened, but the silver lining is that it’s behind us now, and everyone’s moved on, and graciously so.”
For those unaware, in Anupama Chopra’s book Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge: A Modern Classic, Honey Irani detailed her involvement in the scripting stages. She recalled several early-morning meetings with Aditya and even travelling with the team to Switzerland during the shoot. While she acknowledged that Aditya had done “quite a lot of work” on the writing, she maintained that she played a key role in shaping the narrative. She insisted her contribution deserved acknowledgement, “Even if 80 percent of the screenplay was his, at least 20 percent was mine. Don’t take that 20 percent away from me,” she told Anupama. Aditya, however, claimed that Honey’s contribution to the writing was minimal.
Farhan himself admitted that the controversy had deeply strained his childhood bond with Uday Chopra. In a 2002 interview with Rediff, he said, “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t upset.” He added, “Not just at Uday, but at all of them. Because these are people I knew for practically all my life. It really upset my Mom for a long time because they were her close friends.” At the time, Farhan said he was in the process of healing and that “time has healed things,” though he maintained, “Unfortunately, there are certain things you cannot forget.”
Honey Irani was not the only writer who felt wronged. Javed Siddiqui, who received a co-writer credit for the film’s dialogues, also expressed dissatisfaction. In Chopra’s book, he described the credit as “an injustice,” claiming he had written almost all the film’s dialogue and that Aditya had made only minor changes.
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