25 Years Of 'Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai': Hrithik Roshan's Friends And Family Unpack A Debut For The Ages
25 years ago, Hrithik Roshan became an overnight sensation with 'Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai'; those close to him recall the euphoria his debut caused, and how his stardom has endured since
It is the year 2000, and in Agra's St. Patricks Junior College, a few days after January 14, a group of 12th-standard seniors are reading their Accounts books— and blushing. The girls, dressed in red school cardigans, have devised a plan to make their early morning lectures more exciting by being neck-deep in their books... for nestled inside them are carefully-placed pictures of the man they can't stop daydreaming about: Hrithik Roshan.
25 years ago, when Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai hit the screens, almost every school, college, office and home had young boys, girls, men and women all wanting to dance, look, and love like Hrithik Roshan. They had witnessed the birth of a superstar.
The Arrival
"When he made his debut, the euphoria was insane," filmmaker and Hrithik's childhood friend, Goldie Behl, tells The Hollywood Reporter India. "All sorts of unimaginable things were happening, including women getting married to his pictures!" he laughs.
Directed by his actor-filmmaker father Rakesh Roshan, Hrithik debuted with a double role in the film, playing the orphaned Rohit and the NRI Raj.
"I was too young to comprehend the amount of lives that were being changed on that Friday, including ours and his," Hrithik's actor-cousin Pashmina Roshan tells THR India.
"When I look back at that particular moment in our family, it was like a golden euphoric light cast on us. There was a lot of celebration and love."
While the entire nation was swooning over Hrithik, for Pashmina, he simply remained her Duggu bhaiya.
"I had gone to watch The Roshans Show in Kolkata, and I remember a man on stage, with a mask covering his face. He was dancing like a dream, so I asked my mom who he was, because I was mesmerised. Turns out, it was Duggu bhaiya only! That was the first time I saw him as an artist, and the first time I was part of the phenomenon that was Hrithik Roshan," she remembers.
The Madness
Pashmina recalls laughing how she was fascinated when Hrithik bought a new car which had seats facing each other. But for her girlfriends in school, the bigger fascination was the driver of the van. "I had asked him to pick us up from school and when he came, all the kids ran to meet him. I was feeling like a celebrity myself. He spoke to all my friends and a little two-minute pick-up turned into a 30-minute meet and greet."
Hrithik's Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai co-star Vrajesh Hirji, who played Tony, had gone to watch the film at Gaiety Galaxy with his family. The actor says throughout the first half, his family kept saying, "Wow... so cute and lovely, so handsome!" During the interval, when the actor blushed and thanked them, his family gave him a puzzled look.
"They said, 'No it was for Hrithik Roshan!' When we came back home, my own family couldn't stop talking about him! His debut was unparalleled. When the craze took over, I couldn't stop thinking how it couldn't have happened to a more deserving or nicer person," he tells THR India.
Even before the film hit cinemas, those who knew Hrithik even before his debut could sense something special about to unfold. But Goldie says what no one saw coming was the "scale, outcome, and euphoria" of it.
"It is the benchmark and the best debut of all time. But there was anxiety before release, because no actor with light eyes had succeeded before that. It sounds petty and small now, but at that point things were very different," he says.
Veteran journalist Bharti Dubey tells THR India she saw a special preview of the film at the now-shut Adlabs theatre in the city; she immediately told Rakesh Roshan that Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai will go down in history as the "birth of a superstar".
"Shortly after the release, I remember going to meet Hrithik at Filmistan Studio, where he was shooting for another film. His staff had to escort me from the main gate because word had spread that he was there ,and a huge crowd had turned up. One couldn't even walk; he was an overnight superstar," Bharti recalls.
Senior media photographer Varinder Chawla used to run a photo studio in Goregaon. As part of the assignment, he clicked a picture of Hrithik in a red jacket at the Zee Cine Awards that was held immediately after the film's release. The photographer recalls that the craze to "just look at him" was so high, that he devised a plan.
"This was the pre-social media era. People had already seen all the media stills which the makers had released. So I made 150 postcards of that picture of Hrithik in a red jacket and kept it on display at my studio for sale at ₹ 20. They were sold within a day! Girls from schools and colleges bought them all."
The Irony
The nation may have found a new heartthrob, but Hrithik's friends, family, and co-stars point out the irony; here was an actor who skyrocketed to stardom, but always remained uncomfortable with it.
"I think a lot of the film is two shades of Hrithik himself," Goldie says. "The film is pretty much him in a nutshell. It's beautiful and ironic; I don't know while making the movie if one imagined it that way. His biggest ability is to underestimate himself, but that is what drives him. He doesn't take anything for granted, including his legacy and family," he adds.
Choreographer Bosco Martis, who worked with Hrithik in his second film Mission Kashmir (2000) says that when he saw the actor on-screen, he thought of him as a "Greek God who could dance as well as act". But when he met in person, he was surprised to see the man behind the aura.
"He was such an introvert, but would swell up on stage and screen. I remember choreographing him for the song 'Rind Posh Maal'. When he ran in to see the choreography, he was so excited! Our best songs have been with him. He revolutionised dancing," Bosco tells THR India.
The Incident
However, while the golden glow of the spotlight was on Hrithik, the debut was also marred by a scarring incident just seven days after the release of Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, when Rakesh Roshan was shot by two assailants. One bullet hit him on the left arm, while the other grazed his chest.
"That was a time of fear," Pashmina recalls. "But I don't think anybody in the family let the kids understand what was happening with regards to that."
Journalist Bharti Dubey also remembers the harrowing time, and how Hrithik almost wanted to quit films altogether. "Hrithik was so broken that he almost quit the industry. He was so shaken and remained worried. It was a big setback for the family right after the son achieved stardom. But they found their strength again, because of the outpouring of love. That kept them all going."
25 years on — after the many career highs and lows that followed after Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai — Hrithik Roshan remains one of the biggest superstars in the country. Now gearing up for the release of his biggie War 2 co-starring Jr NTR, and the next instalment of his superhero film franchise Krrish, we wait with bated breath to see what the next 25 years will hold for him.