Director Karan Johar recently spoke out about the helter-skelter yet memorable process of directing Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ), exposing behind-the-scenes turmoil that fans were never aware of. In an interview with Jay Shetty on his podcast, Karan revealed how learning to be an assistant director on the 1995 romantic epic school him valuable lessons, but also exposed some disturbing facts regarding the lack of proper resources, particularly for the women actors.
Karan Johar On Kajol Changing Sarees Behind A Tree For DDLJ
Karan described how the DDLJ team was a small crew of just 21 people shooting in Switzerland. Without the luxury of vanity vans or even changing rooms, Kajol often had to change sarees behind trees in open fields. “We’d stop wherever the location looked beautiful, and just start filming. Kajol would change behind a tree, Shah Rukh Khan would change anywhere he could. It was that kind of a shoot,” Karan recalled.
He also described how, unlike the big productions of the present, there was no real crew for hair, makeup, or wardrobe. Actually, Kajol’s hairdresser couldn’t obtain a visa for the shoot — so Karan ended up combing her hair, while her mom, Tanuja, did makeup. “There was no hair and makeup person for her. We just managed with whoever was around,” he said.
From purchasing inexpensive accessories at railway station to actually lugging gear up mountain peaks, the DDLJ team worked more like a squad of enthusiastic cine studies students than a Bollywood team. Karan, who was also working on Shah Rukh Khan’s wardrobe at the time, reminisced that in spite of the sacrifices, it was a happy period. “Everybody belonged to the group — Shah Rukh, Kajol, even the assistants. Now it is all so mechanical and dull.
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, directed by Aditya Chopra and produced by Yash Chopra, turned out to become one of the all-time great love stories of Indian cinema.
While Karan Johar continues to go about his filmmaking career, his current production Sarzameen, featuring Kajol and Prithviraj Sukumaran, opened recently on JioCinema, and Dhadak 2 is scheduled for release in theatres on August 1, 2025.
Also Read: Kajol Revisits Her Iconic Green Lehenga From DDLJ Reminiscing The Magical 28 Years Of The Film