Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and on the occasion, the makers, cast and some of the crew members reunited to reminisce about their memories from the making of the film. Aamir Khan, who played one of the key roles in the film, along with Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna, recalled the time when Akshaye’s character Sid slapped his character Aakash during the tension-filled interval scene of the film. Farhan recalled that none of these were fake, which are often done while shooting for a film, which meant that Aamir was actually getting slapped on his face, and by the end, one side of his face was red and swollen. The slap was shot 17 times.

‘Aamir insisted, his face was swollen’

Aamir shared that the slap was done 17 times for different angles and magnifications and Farhan added, “They were all real slaps.” Farhan shared that he only wanted a real slap in the wide-angle shot but the impact of the scene was such that Aamir insisted on getting really slapped for the rest of the shoot of the scene as well. Farhan had prepared Aamir for the slap but at the last minute, he told Akshaye to slap him a little before the planned moment for an element of surprise.

“I told Akshaye that he is expecting it to happen at the end of this line. Do it while he is saying the line so you get the element of surprise on his face. After that, Aamir said that even when we were doing it in the OTS (over-the-shoulder shot), let him just slap me because he is bringing me into a frame of mind which is really helping me. So then he just insisted on getting slapped,” Farhan recalled in a chat shared by Yuvaa.

Aamir added that it worked for the scene so he went ahead with it. “But it works. And even his angle, because when you actually slap someone, it makes you feel differently,” he said, and Farhan recalled Aamir’s face being swollen by the end. “When we were finished, I remember there was a full mark. He was all swollen on one side of his face,” he shared.

Why did Akshaye slap Aamir?

The moment when Sid slaps Aakash happens after Sid admits that he is in love with Tara, and Aakash says something unsavoury about their relationship. Sid slaps Aakash, and this causes a rift between them, that doesn’t get solved until the end of the film. When Farhan was asked why he chose a slap, instead of something more violent, he explained that between friends, a slap means much more than any other form of physical beating.

“I think between friends, when a friend slaps another friend, it’s a massive happening so I don’t think you ned to push it any further than that. At most, we could have added some digital reverb to make it more dramatic,” he said and added, “I mean between friends, a slap is more than enough. It doesn’t need to be more.”

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Akshaye Khanna, Saif Ali Khan and Aamir Khan in Dil Chahta Hai.

Aamir also spoke about the scene and shared, “As a violent act, you can say that a slap is not as violent as stabbing someone or beating up someone but actually, between friends, just a slap is much more demeaning, insulting, or hurtful. A slap is much more hurtful than getting beaten up, so for me all that worked beautifully.” Speaking about his character’s reaction to that, Aamir added, “When Aakash gets slapped, his anger rises so much that beyond that, he doesn’t want to compromise. I felt that on the written page, and I had no doubts about that.”

When Suchitra Pillai told Sharmila Tagore about slapping Saif Ali Khan

The film had another scene which featured a slap and this scene was between Saif Ali Khan’s Sameer and Suchitra Pillai’s Priya, where she slaps him when they are on the verge of breaking up. Suchitra was also present at the event and recalled that even she was asked to slap Saif for real and she ended up doing it thrice. “I slapped you, Saif. I slapped you three times,” she recalled with a laugh.

She also recalled running into Saif’s mother, veteran actor Sharmila Tagore, where she introduced herself as the actor who had slapped Saif in Dil Chahta Hai. “I told her, ‘Ma’am, I am Suchitra. I don’t know if you remember Dil Chahta Hai, I slapped your son’. And she said, ‘I hope it was a hard one’,” she recalled with a laugh.

Dil Chahta Hai also starred Preity Zinta, Dimple Kapadia, Sonali Kulkarni, Rajat Kapoor, Ayub Khan, among others.