Thread by @IWTKQuiz

August 10 will mark 20 years since the release on one of the most iconic movies of all time - Dil Chahtha Hai.

The movie saved Goa - suffering from bleak tourism following the 9/11 terrorist attacks with hordes of people visiting Goa, especially the Chapora fort for this pic.

Our thread starts with the idea of DCH - the story that @FarOutAkhtar wrote. His childhood friend narrated a story to him - which became the outline for Akash.

Farhan frequented Goa a lot and also had a memorable trip to New York in 1996 all of which were combined in the script

The film was supposed to be set in New York, but when the shooting schedule was finalized, it would have been really cold in NY.

NY was replaced by Australia.

Farhan Akthar had worked as assistant director in Akshaye Khanna's debut - Himalay Putra. He had also met @realpreityzinta during the shooting of Kya Kehna which was directed by his mother Honey Irani.

Both agreed to be a part of Farhan's film when it got made.

Farhan initially cast Akshaye Khanna as Akash, Hrithik Roshan as Sid and Saif Ali Khan as Sameer. Saif said no.

Hrithik said no. Later Abhishek Bachchan said no.

Aamir Khan agreed, but only to play Akash.

Akshaye consented to play Sid. With Aamir on board, Saif said yes.

The character of Pooja, Saif's love interest was supposed to be played by Hrishita Bhat. She said no.

Isha Koppikar then said no.

Sonali Kulkarni was finally cast.

The way she got the role is interesting - somebody was carrying her photographs and they fell in front of Zoya Akhtar. She saw those photos and decided to call her.

We see this play out in Luck By Chance when Konkana Sen Sharma gives photographs of Farhan Akhtar to a producer.

The character of Subodh was played by Farhan Akhtar's friend Asad Dadarkar - his only movie role.

In 1996, Farhan had visited USA. Asad had planned the trip to a minute. Farhan wanted to spend an extra couple of hours in Las Vegas, but Asad said no.

"To eat in a specific restaurant in another city, we have to leave Vegas at 9.46PM."

Farhan wanted to take revenge on this - he decided to incorporate the character Subodh in his script and asked Asad to play him.

He was seriously the most sorted adult we know of.

The way music of the film came together, can be a film in itself.

Farhan Akhtar initially wanted @arrahman as music director, but somehow felt they wont get along.

He had worked with Shankar Mahadevan on Breathless and heard the recording of 'Dhuan Dhuan' from Mission Kashmir

Shankar Ehsan Loy were then signed as music directors.

SEL along with @Javedakhtarjadu and @FarOutAkhtar went to Khandala to work on the music. Ehsan had told his family - I dont know when I will return.

But they finished the tunes for all songs within a week.

Initially the iconic bass line introduction for Dil Chahta Hai was going to be used for Jaane Kyun..

But Shankar Mahadevan had a brainwave while brushing his teeth and walked out with toothbrush in hand to say "Boys we should use that for Dil Chahta Hai"

A very nice blues number was also composed "Pyaar mein Kitna Gham hai". This would have been the song instead of Tanhayee..

Tanhayee was chosen as it had anger in it - that was the emotion Farhan Akhtar was going for.

@FarOutAkhtar we are all waiting for the blues number now.

Father and Son pair had arguments over some of the songs.

Farhan didn't like the word 'Ghaat' in 'Pyaar ke Ghaat'.

But he didn't like 'Chamkile Din' in the title track - it reminded him of a detergent.

@Javedakhtarjadu stood firm and lyrics stayed.

The whole album recording was a lot of fun.. Jokes were thrown here and there.

Woh ladki hain kahaan became woh darzi hain kahaan for a gucci suit.

Javed Akhtar joked with Kavitha Krishnamurthy that the lyrics Yeh Haseen Murathi pyar ki - should Yeh Krishna Murthy pyaar ki..

The famous 'Birdie step' has been credited to Geeta Kapoor, who then was as assistant to Farah Khan.

“I remember I had told Geeta (Kapur) that I will play the song and you do some steps. She started doing some birdy step and that is how we made that our hook step,”

Remember this girl? She was the friend of the costume designer's assistant. And she was selected because she resembled Dimple Kapadia.

"A man like Sid had to get someone who reminded him of Tara to be interested in her."

Remember this scene where Sid comforts Deepa by telling her his philosophy about "it being impossible to grasp the grains of sand with a tighter clasp" - its a homage to to the poem 'A Dream Within A Dream' by Edgar Allan Poe.

The line "Kuch rishtey hote hai jinka koi naam nahi hota." This was not in the original script, but added much later when people kept commenting on what is the relationship between Sid and Tara..

The man who created these paintings was Tushar Joag. But he doesn't considered them his works - “They were commissioned works hence I don't call them my works.”

In the 2017 film Chef, Saif Ali Khan reminisces a trip to Goa with 2 friends where he met a beautiful foreigner.

This was discovered by @sachdeva_pankaj - Follow him for more such amazing discoveries in movies.

The above thread has been compiled by going through multiple videos and articles available on the interwebz.

@sachdeva_pankaj has written a book on this film - pankajsachdeva.com/2021/07/16/dil…

@aktalkies longread on this film - fiftytwo.in/story/friends/

Thank You Akshaye Khanna, Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, @realpreityzinta, Sonali Kulkarni, Dimple Kapadia, Shankar-Ehsan-Loy, @Javedakhtarjadu, @ritesh_sid, @TheFarahKhan, others and most importantly @FarOutAkhtar for a memorable movie.