Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, also known as KKHH, is a Hindi romantic comedy drama film, released
in India and the United Kingdom on 16 October 1998. It was written and directed by Karan
Johar, and starred the popular on-screen pair of Shahrukh Khan and Kajol in their fourth
film together. Rani Mukerji featured in a supporting role, while Salman Khan had an
extended guest appearance. Filmed in India, Mauritius, and Scotland,
this was Karan Johar's directorial debut. One of his goals for the film was to set a
new level for style in Hindi cinema. The plot combines two love triangles set years apart.
The first half covers friends on a college campus, while the second tells the story of
a widower's young daughter who tries to reunite her dad with his old friend.
The film was extremely successful in India and abroad, becoming the highest grossing
Indian film of the year, and the first Bollywood film to enter the UK cinema top ten. The soundtrack
also became the biggest seller of the year. The film won many major awards including the
"Best Film" honours at the Filmfare Awards, the National Film Awards, Zee Cine Awards,
Screen Awards, and Bollywood Movie Awards. Years after its release, it still makes appearances
on Indian television and has achieved an iconic status.
Plot Rahul Khanna and tomboy Anjali Sharma are
best friends in St. Xavier's College. The college principal Mr. Malhotra has a beautiful
daughter Tina, who comes to St. Xavier's from London to finish her degree. She becomes friends
with both Rahul and Anjali. When Anjali realizes that she is in love with Rahul, she is encouraged
by her motherly housekeeper Rifat Bi to tell him so. Instead, Anjali is left heartbroken
when Rahul tells her that he loves Tina. Anjali decides to leave college and shares a tearful
goodbye with Rahul, going away from Rahul and Tina's lives forever. Tina then realizes
that she came between two best friends who actually loved each other. After college,
Rahul marries Tina and, in a year of marriage, Tina gives birth to a baby girl. Tina has
complications in her pregnancy and has little time left, so she writes eight letters to
her daughter, so that she will know her mother. Before dying, Tina asks Rahul to name their
daughter Anjali. Eight years pass, and Rahul is a single parent
living with his daughter and loving mother. On her eighth birthday, little Anjali Khanna
reads the last and most important letter that her mother left her; it tells the story of
Anjali Sharma and how she was always Rahul's true love. Anjali Khanna is given the mission
of reuniting Rahul with Anjali Sharma and bringing back Rahul's lost love. Anjali Sharma
is no longer the tomboy she was in college; she is now more feminine, and is engaged to
Aman Mehra. However, she explains to her mother that she does not really love him and is marrying
him as a compromise as she feels she can never love again after losing Rahul. Aman also suspects
that she does not really love him. Anjali Khanna and her grandmother search for Anjali
Sharma and soon learn that she is going to be working at a summer camp. They travel there,
with a plan to later lure Rahul to come as well, and the two Anjalis meet each other.
One night while watching television, Anjali Sharma realizes she has met her best friend's
daughter, and that Tina is dead. Rahul soon arrives at Camp Sunshine, where he and Anjali
Sharma are surprised and delighted to see each other again, sharing a sweet reunion.
Throughout the days spent at the camp, Rahul and Anjali feel themselves falling in love.
However, Anjali remembers that she is engaged and feels guilty. Aman arrives and tells Rahul
that he is Anjali's fiancee. Rahul is heartbroken but congratulates Anjali. She takes this as
him rejecting her again, so she leaves summer camp and decides to get married to Aman as
soon as possible. After seeing Tina in a dream, Rahul and his
family go to Anjali's wedding, where Rahul silently confesses to Anjali that he loves
her, and watches in tears as she is brought forth for the wedding. Realizing this, Anjali
is hesitant to go on with the marriage, and stands weeping. Aman notices the tears in
her eyes and realizes that she has always been in love with Rahul. He releases Anjali
from the engagement and tells her to marry Rahul. Rahul and Anjali have an emotional
hug and as the two marry, little Anjali has a vision of Tina smiling and giving her the
thumbs up. Cast
Shah Rukh Khan as Rahul Khanna: A student at St. Xavier's college, and Anjali Sharma's
best friend. He marries Tina and they name their daughter 'Anjali.'
Kajol as Anjali Sharma: The college's tomboy and Rahul's best friend, who is secretly in
love with him. Rani Mukerji as Tina Malhotra: The principal's
daughter, feminine, sophisticated, an alumna from Oxford University. She is the woman with
whom Rahul eventually has a daughter, but has always felt guilty for coming between
Anjali and Rahul. She passes away after giving birth to her child.
Salman Khan as Aman Mehra: Anjali Sharma's loving fiancé.
Sana Saeed as Anjali Khanna: Named after Anjali Sharma, she is Rahul's and Tina's daughter.
Farida Jalal as Mrs. Khanna: Rahul's mother. Anupam Kher as Principal Malhotra: Tina's
father. He is slightly infatuated with Ms. Briganza.
Archana Puran Singh as Ms. Briganza: A showy English teacher. She flirts with Principal
Malhotra. Reema Lagoo as Mrs. Sharma: She is Anjali
Sharma's mother and has doubts about her daughter's motives for marrying Aman.
Himani Shivpuri as Rifat Bi: St. Xavier's girl's hostel housekeeper.
Johnny Lever as Col. Almeida: The manager of Camp Sunshine.
Parzan Dastur as Silent Sardarji: A Sikh boy at Camp Sunshine that never talks.
Neelam as herself in a special appearance: She is the host of The Neelam Show.
Production Story
After the experience of assisting and acting in his friend Aditya Chopra's directorial
debut, the romance film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Karan Johar was encouraged to try
his own hand at directing. With Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, he chose to pair up the same lead
actors, Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, for his own romance film. During the filming of Dilwale
Dulhania Le Jayenge, Khan had also encouraged Johar to make his own film, and said that
he would be willing to star in it. Johar first wrote a story, which was a love
triangle between a tomboy, a very pretty girl and a slightly insensitive boy, but he shelved
the idea because he was not very satisfied with it. Then he wrote another plot about
a widower and his child, which he shelved as well. Eventually he decided to merge the
two stories into one. He explained in an interview with Rediff.com: "It was about the trauma
of a widower and his little child. How the child really wants a mother and how she brings
her mother into her father's life. Then I thought: Why not bring a youth aspect to the
story? Why not a flashback? That's how the story got made." The story also includes a
"personal desires vs. parental loyalties" theme, and has some "East meets West" themes,
but instead of the characters going abroad, it creates a virtual West inside India.
Development Karan Johar was certain from the beginning
who he wanted to cast in the lead roles, having observed Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol during the
making of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. It took longer to fill the role of Tina. The
role was written with Twinkle Khanna in mind, but she turned it down. Other actresses such
as Tabu, Shilpa Shetty, Urmila Matondkar, Aishwarya Rai, Raveena Tandon and Karisma
Kapoor were offered the role but also turned it down. Rani Mukerji, without being asked,
read the script and volunteered for the part, which gave a boost to her career.
Johar, who is also a costume designer, wanted to set a new level for style in Hindi cinema
with this film. He and his friend Manish Malhotra, the film's costume designer, made trips to
London for costumes, much to the chagrin of his father and producer Yash Johar, who was
concerned about the budget. Many of the costumes in the film prominently displayed logos from
designers such as DKNY and Polo. In addition to the designer fashions, Johar also created
a somewhat fantastical world where the students speak Hinglish and enjoy a pristine college
campus, where there is no crime or hate, and traditional Hindu values are pervasive. Johar
admitted that the look and feel of the college scenes in the film were patterned after Beverly
Hills 90210, saying, "The art, the costumes, tilt toward the West, but the soul of the
film is Indian." He hired Sharmishta Roy as art director, and told him to produce something
similar to Riverdale High School of the Archie Comics, with some 90210 influence as well.
Johar said of the outcome, "If you see KKHH, Shahrukh plays Archie, Rani Mukherji plays
Veronica, and Kajol played Bettie. It was exactly that. And the principal looked like
Weatherbee, and Mrs. Grundee was Archana Puran Singh." Johar also hired Farah Khan to do
the choreography, Jatin-Lalit to provide the music, Santosh Thundiyil as cinematographer,
and Nikhil Advani as his associate director. Shabina Khan assisted Manish Malhotra with
costume design. Filming
Filming began on 21 October 1997. The crew was young and inexperienced to the point where
Shah Rukh Khan had to explain basic technicalities of filming. Khan later said, "Karan makes
no bones of the fact that his technical knowledge of filmmaking was not at its peak when he
made the biggest hit of the decade." The entire film was shot in nine and half months with
a substantial part of it shot in Mauritius. The title song was filmed in several picturesque
locations in Scotland over a ten-day period. During the bicycle sequence in the "Yeh Ladki
Hai Deewana" song, Kajol lost control of her bike, fell flat on her face and was knocked
unconscious while also injuring her knee. During the promotional Making of Kuch Kuch
Hota Hai TV special, Kajol stated that the accident was her most memorable part of shooting
the film because she doesn't remember it. During preparation for the reunion scene where
the two leads met after more than 8 years apart, the director told them to improvise
and rehearse the reactions that they might use, but he secretly taped them, and was so
pleased with the result that it was put into the film.
Soundtrack The Kuch Kuch Hota Hai soundtrack was composed
by Jatin-Lalit and the lyrics were penned by Sameer. It was released by the Sony Music
label on 13 August 1998. The album features playback singers Kavita Krishnamurthy, Udit
Narayan, Alka Yagnik, and Kumar Sanu. Mukul Deshpande of Planet Bollywood rated the soundtrack
8.5 out of 10 stars although he did not like all of the songs. The album became the best
selling Bollywood soundtrack of the year. The title song remained on the Indian music
charts for over a year, and in 2012 it was voted as the most popular film song of the
previous decade by NDTV. The full soundtrack came in second place in a similar poll conducted
by the BBC. Release
Reception While comparing the film to Dil To Pagal Hai
of 1997, Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave Kuch Kuch Hota Hai 3.5 out of 5 stars.
She especially liked the performance of Kajol, and thought that the film would appeal to
young and romantic viewers primarily for its "MTV ambiance" and "Valentine Day flavours".
On the negative side, she said "The second half however gets drowned in a sea of emotions.
Too many people begin to cry a bit too much." Anish Khanna of Planet Bollywood rated the
film 9.5 out of 10 stars, calling it "pure escapist cinema at its best." He praised the
cinematography, choreography, set decoration, and also raved over Kajol's performance, along
with her onscreen chemistry with Shah Rukh Khan. Overall, he said "Karan Johar makes
an impressive directorial debut, has a good script sense, and knows how to make a film
with S-T-Y-L-E." In contrast to these views, the reaction of Sujata C J, writing for Rediff.com,
was that the film was very disappointing, with many cliches and a bad story line, though
Santosh Thundiyil and Sharmishta Roy were praised for their camerawork and art direction,
respectively. Nandita Chowdhury in a review for India Today, said that Karan Johar was
almost able to rekindle the Khan-Kajol magic of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, and that overall
the film was "a good distraction". Box office
There were great expectations for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai leading up to its premiere, because
it re-united the Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge team of Shahrukh Khan and Kajol, and specifically
concerning the debut of Karan Johar; whether he would be in the same league as Aditya Chopra
as a first-time writer/director. After an "Excellent" opening, it earned 450 million
net and 770 million gross in India, became the highest grossing Indian film of 1998,
and was declared by Box Office India to be an "All Time Blockbuster". It was one of the
biggest foreign films ever at the UK box office at the time, earning almost £1.5 million,
and becoming the first Bollywood film to break into the UK cinema top 10. In South Africa,
the film made more money than Titanic. It was also very popular in the Netherlands,
where it toured three times to sold out theatres. The films's total collection in overseas markets
was US$6.25 million. The film went on to make a lifetime worldwide gross of 1.03 billion,
becoming the third Bollywood film to gross over 1 billion worldwide. Adjusted for inflation,
it has grossed 1.83 billion. Accolades
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai won many awards, including sweeping all the major categories at the year's
Filmfare Awards, held on 21 February 1999. It was the third film to win the four major
awards at Filmfare. Others include Guide, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Devdas and Black.
Post-release Kuch Kuch Hota Hai has been the subject of
reviews and critical analysis following its initial release. Fuad Omar called it a phenomenal
debut for director Karan Johar; he said that the film has a memorable "feelgood factor".
Subhash K Jha called the film "a simple stylish, sensuous and ambrosial love story," further
adding that the chemistry between the lead pair was unbeatable. A reviewer for Timeout
Film Guide, while commenting that the second love triangle went on too long, liked most
of the film, saying that "its performances, camerawork, storytelling and extensive musical
numbers [are] all energetically colourful." In 2004, Meor Shariman of The Malay Mail called
the film a "must watch" for Bollywood fans, and also for those seeking an introduction
to Bollywood. The film has also been criticized for creating unreal worlds and characters,
to which Johar has said that this was part of his vision of escapism.
A few years after its release, Sony purchased satellite rights for the film for 4 crore.
The film was also released on VHS, DVD, and eventually Blu-ray. Now Kuch Kuch Hota Hai,
along with Johar's second film Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..., often play on television to
consistently high ratings. Johar said, "It’s gratifying to know that they've aged well
and passed the test of time." One of the best examples of the iconic status of Kuch Kuch
Hota Hai was the 2012 film Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi. Farah Khan and Boman Irani
re-created scenes and characters from KKHH for posters to promote their film, and also
paid homage in one of the songs, "Ramba Mein Samba". In 2010, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was selected
by Time as one of their "Five Essential Bollywood movies to Netflix".
Koochie Koochie Hota Hai is an animated remake of the original, directed by Tarun Mansukhani.
Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Rani Mukherjee, Anupam Kher are reprising their roles as Rahul aka
Rocky, Anjali aka Angie, Tina, and the Principal. New cast members include Uday Chopra, Ritesh
Deshmukh, Sanjay Dutt and Simi Garewal. The story will have an anthropomorphic animal
cast. As of October 2012, Karan Johar has placed the project on permanent hold. He said,
"Animation films are not working nowadays, so as of now I have kept it on stand-by."
See also List of Bollywood highest-grossing films in
overseas markets References
External links Kuch Kuch Hota Hai at the Internet Movie Database
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai site at Dharma Productions Kuch Kuch Hota Hai site at Yash Raj Films
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai at Rotten Tomatoes Kuch Kuch Hota Hai at AllMovie
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai at Bollywood Hungama