Shooting for QSQT was ‘like putting together a college play’

On the way to the airport on Saturday, a day after her Knights thrashed Preity Zinta’s Kings by six wickets, Juhi Chawla tells t2 what QSQT means to her...

Twenty five years of QSQT — you must be flooded with memories…

I think I will be because on the 29th (April), which is the date it released, Mansoor (Khan, QSQT director) has organised a screening and a dinner, just for the cast and crew. All the people I’ve worked with… when I’d be meeting them…. Also I haven’t seen the film in maybe 20 years. I really haven’t seen the film. So, once I see the film and I meet the people, my goodness, we will have things to talk about! (Laughs)

How do you think you will react?

I hope I don’t start crying! (Laughs out loud) Did we really do this? I am sure I am going to be in disbelief… we did this and we looked like this! I didn’t know it was going to run for 25 days. I didn’t know I was going to be in the industry for the next two weeks! Twenty five years later, if people are still happy to talk about it, I think it is a blessing from God.

Going back, do you remember how the film came to you?

Oh yes! I do remember. Not all details… but I had been called by Nasir Hussain (QSQT producer) to meet him. He had seen a picture of mine somewhere, maybe in some advertisement, because at that time I had just become Miss India. Somewhere something must have been printed and they were looking for someone to cast opposite Aamir (Khan). So, I was one of the girls to be called in. He met me and I was put to Aamir and the direction team… to be taught scenes for a screen test. I remember Aamir used to teach us how to do the scenes! He had assisted his uncle… he was the chief assistant. I remember doing the actual screen test in the garden of their house. It was literally just done there… under one tree we did the scene.... I have a smattering of memory. It was that scene from Yaadon ki Baaraat where Zeenat Aman realises that she is a rich girl and Vijay Arora a waiter. (Laughs) That was one of the two-three scenes that they made us do. Then I don’t know how they reacted to the whole thing. Eventually I got a call: ‘You can come and sign the film’.

Any memories of the shooting?

Oh yeah! We shot a lot in Ooty. That was my first time in Ooty. I remember almost falling in love with that place. Lovely weather and sweet little scenes to do. At that time, I had also just started working in a south film. Working in the heat in Madras and speaking Tamil and Kannada, which I had never even heard in my life... I was really working, working, working. I was doing homework and working! That’s it! So when I came to Ooty and I was suddenly made to do a Hindi scene, it felt like a picnic. And then the whole cast and crew was all new. Nobody was scared of each other. We weren’t in awe of anyone. It was like putting together a college play. Wonderful! One of the first scenes was shot in a Mumbai studio. It was literally one day’s work and the next thing was in Ooty.

What was Aamir Khan like as a co-actor?

I think he has always been like this… very conscientious, very wanting to-go-into-depths… the same signs were there at that time. But at that time, we were all very young. People don’t take you seriously. You are not expected to interfere with things. And he has grown. He has sort of taken over… going deeper into scripts. That’s why he does the kind of work he does.

Did you foresee the phenomenon that QSQT became?

Never! We had no idea… the whole cast and crew was new… the whole subject was different from what was prevailing at the time. The music was totally different. The film people reacted very differently while we were making the film... like ‘God knows what they are making and how it is going to turn out’. Nasirsaab, I did not know at that time, had not had very successful films. For everybody it just turned the tide completely. It came as a pleasant surprise to the entire industry and the audience.

Would you say it was a life-changing experience?

Oh yeah, it has given me my whole career. It has been the foundation stone. It made people give me proper roles in films. But nothing happened overnight, huh. We did not realise where the film was going for the first few weeks. You just understood that it is steady, slowly people are liking it, then they went for a repeat (watch) and then slowly it became that. Who became a big star or was written a lot about was Aamir. They were crazy about him, which was lovely, but I thought, ‘Arre, yeh kya ho gaya? Nobody wants me around?’ I, for a long time, did not realise what had happened. You are living through your insecurities and anxieties… it was running and still running today.

What is different in the Juhi Chawla of QSQT and today?

Oh God! I have grown 25 years more! What more do you want?

Have your kids seen QSQT?

No, they haven’t! (Laughs) Unfortunately, because it is on a Monday, I don’t know whether they will be able to see the film. I do wish they see it, but then I understand that they would be completely embarrassed to see me like that! Kaun hai yeh? She is not my mum! What is she doing? Why is she prancing around with that boy? Who is that boy… the other actor?

it’s 25 years TODAY since qayamat se qAYAMAT TAK hit screens. The t2 girl gang lists a few reasons why qsqt is the cult romance for a whole generation

01 Bollywood got its first chocolate boy hero in Aamir Khan. Every young girl fell in love with the 23-year-old debutant with his boyish, innocent looks even as their mums wanted to reach out to mother him. Aamir’s Raj was the first man most in the t2 girl gang — then between ages five and eight — wanted to marry.

02 Papa kehte hain became the campus anthem. Aamir in a white shirt and black waistcoat with a red rose tucked into his breast pocket and serenading every pretty young thing on the last day of college in Udit Narayan’s voice. We loved the elderly couple doing that lively jive.

03 Spotting Aamir’s wife Reena in the Papa kehte hain song was a bittersweet moment for us. “That one... that one... whyyyyy herrrrr... is he seriously married?!”

04 The first time when Raj sees Rashmi. She comes in on horseback dressed in sunny yellow, her thick black hair blowing in the wind. He gaped. So did we.

05 Admit it, every time you take a picture at sunset, like Rashmi did of Raj jogging, you think of that dialogue: “Doobte hue suraj ke saamne tasveer kheenchne se umar kam ho jaati hai.” The setting sun became a symbol of the Raj-Rashmi love, culminating in that last kiss.

06 The fun scene outside the restaurant where he goes looking for her and she steals up from behind. Aamir’s shocked expression on being clicked was priceless.

07 The jungle scene by the fire where he tends to her wounds. Very little words are exchanged, but their eyes speak a thousand words. We heart.

08 Aamir in sleeveless black ganji. And running in slo mo. Yummy.

09 The Ghazab ka hai din number the morning after where she is having the time of her life and he is getting exasperated. Oh-so-cute.

10 SHE proposes. Yaaayyy. He responds with a kiss… on her cheek. Sigh.

11 The camp fire where Raj tries to tell Rashmi about their family feud only to find her fast asleep with her head on his lap. Awwwwwww.

12 Juhi’s colourful ghagra-cholis and simple saris were a standout. We particularly loved the yellow and red ghagra-choli in Ghazab ka hai din.

13 “Woh toh hai!” That’s what Rashmi’s friend Kavita keeps repeating on loop when she is helping her pack to run away with Raj. Annoying, but still rings in our head.

14 The father-son moments between Aamir and Dalip Tahil. The scene where an angry Dhanraj is waiting to reprimand Raj, but he walks in injured and hugs his dad and breaks down still brings a lump to the throat.

15 The hitting-the-highway-on the-bike shot of two youngsters defying the world to elope for the sake of love was our true wanna-break-free moment.

16 The young couple set up home atop a rocky hill. He becomes the man of the house, she tries to keep house, only to burst into tears when the food she cooks becomes a burnt mess. He comforts her. Tenderly. We so want a man like Raj to go Akele hain with.

17 For many of us, the first kiss we saw on screen. So what if it was imagined and fleeting. Special.

18 Rashmi getting shot atop the hill and rolling down and Raj running to help her. We still feel the shock.

19 Raj fishing out his dagger, stabbing himself, blood gushing out, tears welling up in our eyes.

20 She says: “Ab humein koi judaa nahin kar sakta.” We began to believe we would die for the person we love. Secretly, we still do.

Where and when did you watch QSQT for the first time?
Tell t2@abp.in