Birthday special: Meet Javed Siddiqui who wrote the iconic line ‘Bade bade deshon mein…’

By Fenil Seta -

January 13, 2018 - 2:10 PM IST

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was a game-changer and a trendsetter in a lot of ways. One of the most noticeable aspects of the film was its dialogues. They were quite conversational and straight out of life, which was unlike the films made in those times that relied more on dramatic and clapworthy one-liners. The one dialogue of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge that however has become iconic is ‘Bade bade deshon mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hain.’ In the book ‘Aditya Chopra Relives…Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’, written by Nasreen Munni Kabir, the director explains how this cheesy yet endearing dialogue became a part of the film.

Birthday special: Meet Javed Siddiqui who wrote the iconic line ‘Bade bade deshon mein…’

Aditya Chopra in the book revealed he enlisted the help of Javed Siddiqui, who had written some prominent films like Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Umrao Jaan, Baaghi, Baazigar, Sohni Mahiwal etc. Aditya felt the need to take up his help as he felt that he wrote and thought in English and he needed help to make the dialogues sound more desi as well as make them sound true to life. Aditya Chopra hence handed over the first half of the screenplay and the dialogue in English to Javed Siddiqui.

When Javed got back to Aditya Chopra with his dialogues, he was a bit disappointed as the tone of his dialogues was not right. Aditya hence decided to write some scenes himself to show him kind of thing he was after. He explained, “When I started writing, the Hindi dialogue just poured out of me. I did not go back to Javed saab now did I give him the second half because I felt I was unreasonable to expect him to use a language that young NRIs and college kids use.

Yet, there was one dialogue that caught Aditya Chopra’s attention and he used it in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. And that dialogue was none other than ‘Bade bade deshon mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hain.’ Aditya Chopra explained why he used this line, “This line is the only repeated dialogue of the film. It’s a lovely catchphrase, the sort that was popular in the 1950s. The line had a kind of cheesy quality that I liked.”

Not just that, the other appealing bit of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was Shah Rukh Khan addressing Kajol as ‘Senorita’. And that also was Javed Siddiqui’s touch.

Despite Javed Siddiqui’s minor contribution, he gets the credit of dialogue writer. Aditya Chopra surprisingly took the credit of ‘Additional Dialogue’ despite writing almost all the dialogues of this iconic film.

Javed Siddiqui turns 76 today and we at Bollywood Hungama wish him a very happy birthday.