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I’m terribly nervous and incredibly excited. 26 years later I will be directing DDLJ all over again but this time as an English language Broadway Musical for a worldwide audience. But this time the medium is not cinema but theatre. It gave me my identity and kickstarted an amazing journey for which I’ll always be grateful.Ģ6 years later I’m going back to my original vision of the story of DDLJ, a love story of an American boy and an Indian girl, a love story of two cultures…two worlds. DDLJ released in 1995 and became the longest running film of Indian cinema. As a 23 year old young man greatly influenced by Hollywood and American pop culture, I thought I would make a couple of Indian films and then I would be off to Hollywood and make DDLJ for a worldwide English speaking audience with Tom Cruise as my leading man. But what many don’t know is that I never intended to make DDLJ in Hindi. The film created history and changed my life and many others forever. 26 years back I started my career with a film called Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ, what it is more famously known as). I’m reuniting two long-lost lovers, Broadway Musical and Indian Films.
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I realised then, that worlds apart, languages apart, western musical theatre and Indian films are two long-lost lovers separated in time.Īutumn 2021… I’m embarking on my most ambitious project till date. It filled me with the same joy and emotions that a good Indian film does.
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The burst of colours, the heightened drama, the passionate singing, the unabashed dancing, a classic story, a happy end. It was just not the fact that both use songs to tell the story, it was much more than that, it was the feeling they evoked which was exactly the same. But the most significant aspect that resonated with me was how similar musical theatre was to our Indian films. I couldn’t believe that this kind of spectacle could be created live on stage. But that day what I saw on stage blew my mind.
#Dilwale dulhania le jayenge review movie#
Now, till then, I was a kid who was an avid movie watcher, and what I loved the most was big screen Indian blockbusters. The lights dimmed, the curtains lifted and what unfolded in the next three hours left me speechless and stunned. My parents took my brother and me for our first musical theatre experience. The design team will also include set design by Emmy and Tony Award winner Derek McLane ( Moulin Rouge!, Hairspray Live!, 33 Variations) and music supervision by Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award-winning Bill Sherman ( In The Heights, Sesame Street, Hamilton). Adam Zotovich is the Executive Producer for the project.Ĭome Fall in Love – The DDLJ Musical is set to be on stage in the Broadway season of 2022-2023, with a World Premiere at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego September 2022. A global casting search begins shortly headed by Duncan Stewart of Stewart/Whitley casting and Yash Raj Films casting head Shanoo Sharma.ĪDITYA CHOPRA’s NOTE ON HIS BROADWAY DIRECTORIAL : Tony and Emmy winner Rob Ashford ( Frozen, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Boys from Syracuse) will choreograph with associate choreographer Shruti Merchant. Aditya has been working on this passion project for the past three years and has roped in a stellar, extremely diverse team, comprising some of the best talents of Broadway and India for the same.Ĭome Fall in Love – The DDLJ Musical is being produced by Yash Raj Films. Based on an original story by Chopra, the musical will feature book and lyrics by Laurence Oliver Award-winner Nell Benjamin ( Legally Blonde, Mean Girls), top Indian songwriters Vishal Dadlani & Shekhar Ravjiani will serve as composers. He strongly feels Broadway and Indian films are ‘two long lost lovers separated in time’ because of their intrinsic similarities as both celebrate heart-warming stories and human emotions through music and dance. Popularly called DDLJ, it is one of the highest-grossing movies in the history of Indian cinema and the biggest IP of the country’s rich and diverse movie industry.Īfter 26 years, Aditya Chopra is set to direct DDLJ again and it will mark his debut as a director on Broadway. His debut directorial, the historic romantic film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which was released in 1995, is still running in theatres. Yash Raj Films is the biggest Indian studio and its Chairman and Managing Director, Aditya Chopra, has directed and produced some of the biggest blockbusters in the history of Indian cinema. “Western musical theatre and Indian films are two long lost lovers separated in time,”says Indian film-maker Aditya Chopra, who is set to make his Broadway debut as a director with his record-setting worldwide blockbuster, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ).
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