When Bollywood is experiencing a dearth of love stories, it is only fitting to look back and recall the much-loved romantic dramas that the Hindi film industry has produced. Recently, filmmaker Kunal Kohli talked about how he made Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji’s hit 2004 film Hum Tum. Kohli admitted that while he and Aditya Chopra were confident in the film’s potential, producer Yash Chopra refused to invest much in it.
Speaking at India Now and How, Kunal said, “Yash Chopra wasn’t very happy with Hum Tum’s script. He said Mujhse Dosti Karoge! is Mughal-E-Azam in front of it. He called the script ordinary and said it’s a travel log. He agreed to give Rs 7.5 crore and refused to give a penny more. Only Aditya and me believed in the film.”
Kunal added, “Yash ji had even said that he would not put his name in the film if it won’t work and would put Aditya Chopra’s name instead, but after watching the final cut, he appreciated the film and said, ‘I was wrong, you both were right.’ I had tears in my eyes. He said, ‘I will proudly put my name’.”
The film also featured animated sequences, which were expensive to produce, but Kunal managed to reduce the cost to Rs 50 lakh to save the budget. “I just kept basic sketches of the cartoons and removed the background, 3D, and everything.” He also recalled how they filmed the Paris and USA sequences in Amsterdam to cut costs. “We bought Paris’ stock shots, and Karan Johar gifted us stock shots of New York when he went there to shoot for Kal Ho Naa Ho.”
Kunal also shared how he had to convince Rishi Kapoor to take on a small role in the film, as the late actor initially refused to be cast in it. “Rishi ji told me, ‘I don’t do guest appearances in films, especially in a Yash Raj Films production, because I have always played a hero and done important films for them.’” However, after Kunal narrated the scenes to him in detail, Rishi Kapoor eventually agreed to do the film.
Although Hum Tum is now widely praised, Kunal recalled that nobody liked the film after watching it. He shared how trade analysts warned him that the film would not work and how the industry’s reaction was lukewarm. “They told me, ‘What have you done? Everything is wrong. I am shocked you made a film like this.’ The whole industry went to see the paid preview of the film, and they nodded at me and went like, ‘His film is a flop.’”
However, despite the skepticism, Hum Tum became a box office hit upon release. Kunal recalled a phone call with Rakesh Roshan, who congratulated him on the film’s success. “The film didn’t drop even on Monday. Rakesh ji called me and said, ‘Your film is housefull at 12 pm in Indore. On Monday, even the big films flop, but your film is housefull. Congratulations, it is a blockbuster.’”
