Actress Suchitra Pillai Says Even Now People Remember Her As Saif Ali Khan’s Girlfriend From Dil Chahta Hai
As a child, there were a few movies I’d watch on repeat. Kal Ho Na Ho, K3G, Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, Mujhse Dosti Karoge (don’t judge!) and of course, Dil Chahta Hai. Every time either of these was playing on TV, I’d be sitting on my couch reciting dialogues with the actors. In fact, I loved Dil Chahta Hai so much that there was a phase where I’d make my parents put on the CD every night while eating dinner. That movie taught me so much about friendship, relationships and well, what not to do in Goa. No matter what anyone says, Dil Chahta Hai is a classic Bollywood movie.
The beauty of that movie was not only that the three main characters (Akash, Sid and Sameer) had interesting character arcs but also that the supporting characters (like Rohit, Deepa, Shalini and my personal favourite, Priya) had impactful roles. The scene where Sameer goes to Priya’s house after being egged on by Akash is probably the funniest scene in the whole movie. Priya is a bossy, high-maintenance girlfriend portrayed by actress Suchitra Pillai who says that even today people remember her as Saif Ali Khan’s girlfriend from Dil Chahta Hai.
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In a recent interview, Suchitra Pillai was reminded that the Farhan Akhtar directorial, Dil Chahta Hai completes 20 years this year. In response to that, she said, “Arre, woh bhi kya din the. I was young. (What days were those, I was young then).” She goes on to say that even now people come up to her and say, “‘I wish we were girlfriends like that with our boyfriends, the way you were with Saif. The boys would say, ‘Thank God, we never had a girlfriend like you.’” Suchitra further adds, “So, Priya was definitely a well-defined character in the little time that she was on screen.”
Suchitra also recalled how she landed the role of Priya. She said, “It was a role that Farhan gave me just like that. I didn’t test for it or anything. He just made me and Saif do a little bit of jogging in the office.”
Dil Chahta Hai is one of my very favourite movies and Suchitra Pillai, in whatever little screen time she had, did a mind-blowing job.
