20 years of Dil To Pagal Hai: When Karisma Kapoor was nervous to dance opposite Madhuri Dixit

Director Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai (1997) had a casting coup of sorts with the love triangle of Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Karisma Kapoor. The three artistes had never worked together in film before.

Dixit and Shah Rukh had previously worked on the thriller Anjaam (1994) and earlier in 1997 on Rakesh Roshan’s Koyla, which never enjoyed the success Dil To Pagal Hai did. But it was the first time that Kapoor was seen with both Dixit and Shah Rukh. Therefore, there was natural curiosity to see how they would all interact together onscreen.

Kapoor won her first National Award for best supporting actress for her role. In the film, there is a pivotal scene, where Kapoor’s and Shah Rukh’s characters have an emotional moment by a lake. In the making of video, shot by Uday Chopra, director Yash revealed the lakeside scene was actually shot in Germany. The film was one of the first Indian units to travel and shoot in Baden-Baden, Germany.

The scene, which should have been wrapped up in three hours, took three to four days to film due to stormy weather. Kapoor said in the featurette, “Every time we would get ready for the shot and we would do a rehearsal, it would start raining.”

The video also shows stars Shah Rukh and Kapoor huddling with a few crew members under an umbrella to take shelter when it poured. Shah Rukh sarcastically quipped, “It’s the most brilliant weather for shooting!” Yash said he was happy with the positive attitude of his cast and crew that time.

Kapoor also admitted she was nervous and anxious to dance opposite Dixit in the film. “I was doing this one sequence with Madhuri and after all, I could not imagine that here I was face-to-face with somebody who I had grown up watching,” she admitted.

Set against the backdrop of musical theatre, Choreographer Shiamak Davar was also roped in to give the film a more professional feel. Director Yash said in the making of video that he had attended his shows and felt he was a very talented man. The songs of Dil To Pagal Hai warranted Davar’s style of choreography. Uttam Singh, a former music arranger for Ilayaraja, gave music independently for the first time with the film.

Farah Khan also choreographed a few of the romantic songs in the film like ‘Dholna’ and ‘Pyaar Kar’. Yash worked with Farah for the first time with Dil To Pagal Hai; she had earlier choreographed ‘Ruk Ja O Dil Deewane’ for his son Aditya Chopra's directorial debut Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995).