25 Years Of Pardes EXCLUSIVE: When Shah Rukh Khan and Atal Bihari Vajpayee shared the stage at the film’s audio launch in Delhi

By Fenil Seta -

August 8, 2022 - 10:00 AM IST

Pardes was the fourth-biggest hit of 1997 and is remembered fondly even today. Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Mahima Chaudhry and Apurva Agnihotri, the film worked thanks to its plot, performances, execution and of course, the super-hit music. As the film completes 25 years today, Bollywood Hungama throws light on its memorable music launch event that was held in Delhi. We also stumbled upon an interesting and exclusive picture of Shah Rukh Khan along with the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was the special invitee, at the grand event.

The music launch was held on July 6, 1997, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Delhi. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, Subhash Ghai explained why he had called the ex-Prime Minister of India for the music release. He said, “Since Pardes was about Indian culture, I had approached the late Arun Jaitley ji to invite Vajpayee ji to launch our music in Delhi and Shah Rukh Khan also joined us happily. It was very gracious of such a great leader like Vajpayee ji with his artistic taste to grace our event. I felt so happy.”
Subhash Ghai was also kind enough to share these exclusive snaps from the music event with Bollywood Hungama. The first image, as mentioned above, shows Shah Rukh Khan along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee with the former all smiles and holding the cassette box. The second image is of Subhash Ghai with Atal Bihari Vajpayee while the third picture is of music director Shravan Rathod, Shah Rukh Khan, Subhash Ghai, Amrish Puri and Jackie Shroff together. While Jackie was a regular in Subhash’s films but was not able to make it to the cast of Pardes. However, he was kind enough to grace the audio release.

According to Komal Nahta’s Film Information magazine’s July 12, 1997, issue, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was asked to speak ‘do shabd’ by Subhash Ghai at this event. Vajpayee replied that he’ll speak ‘teen shabd’ and then went on to say exactly three words, which were, “Bahut bahut dhanyavaad”!

The issue also revealed that the playback singers entertained audiences by singing the songs of Pardes. While Sonu Nigam sang ‘Yeh Dil Deewana’, Kumar Sanu crooned ‘Do Dil Mil Rahe Hai’. Kavita Krishnamurti made the atmosphere patriotic by performing ‘I Love My India’. Lastly, Hema Sardesai sang ‘My First Day In USA’.
The then-Congress Vice President Jitendra Prasad was also one of the special guests along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee.