Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s song sequences are known for their precision. A new behind-the-scenes memory from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam shows how firmly that precision was guarded, even when real-life romance entered the frame.
Smita Jayakar, who played Aishwarya Rai’s on-screen mother Amrita Darbar, shared the story in a conversation with Siddhartha Kannan. It concerns the filming of “Aankhon Ki Gustakhiyan”.
What happened on the set
The sequence was blocked simply: Salman Khan had to walk around a table while Rai stood in place, and he had to look at her. According to Jayakar, Khan added an unplanned gesture and touched Rai’s arm. Bhansali stopped the moment immediately.
Jayakar recalled the director asking, “Salman, why did you touch her?”
The correction was small but telling. In Bhansali’s work, a song is not a loose improvisation; it is a composition of movement, light and timing. An unscripted reach was enough to interrupt the shot’s logic.
The chemistry behind the film
Jayakar also spoke about what was happening off camera. She said the two leads were visibly in love during the making of the film, and that their feelings helped the romantic scenes feel convincing.
- The scene was from the song “Aankhon Ki Gustakhiyan”.
- Khan’s brief was to circle the table and look at Rai, not to touch her.
- Bhansali questioned the gesture as soon as it happened.
- Some crew members were frustrated by the actors’ late arrivals, recalled as around 11 am against a 7 am call time.
Jayakar’s own take on the delays was forgiving. “When you’re in love, what can you say?” she quipped.
Why the anecdote matters now
This is not the first time Jayakar has discussed the relationship. She told Filmymantra earlier that the romance developed during the shoot and translated into the film’s love story. The new recollection adds a detail about the boundary between real feeling and the director’s disciplined frame.
For audiences revisiting Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, the memory changes the texture of the song: the spontaneity was genuine, and so was the correction. The split is telling. The crew saw delay; Jayakar saw two actors whose feelings were shaping the film. Both observations can be true, and both belonged to the same production.
The anecdote also fits a wider pattern in film histories: the scenes that read as spontaneous often have a director policing every step. In this case, the director’s question preserved the choreography; the off-camera affection carried the emotion.
Source: The Economic Times
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