patelism

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, or DDLJ as it’s known, is the longest-running film in history—it released in 1995 and it’s been continuously playing ever since (one theater in Mumbai still has daily showings). The title has an old-fashioned ring to it—it means “The Brave-Hearted Will Take the Bride”—but it’s about reconciling the past with the future. It captures a moment in time—the mid-1990s—when India liberalized its economy and opened its doors to the world, and with it came tremendous social and cultural change as Indian tradition clashed with Western modernity. Suddenly, Indians weren’t just Indians, but world citizens like never before. The reason the film’s appeal is so enduring is because India is still negotiating those changes and the film’s main character, Raj, resolves those issues of identity within himself.

DDLJ was a film of firsts. Aditya Chopra, the son of filmmaker Yash Chopra, made his directorial debut with DDLJ—at the age of 23. The movie also firmly established a new and important audience for Hindi cinema: non-resident Indians, NRIs as they’re called, Indians who live outside of India. Today, many Bollywood films are specifically made and marketed with this audience in mind.