Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol will attempt to recreate their on-screen magic in Rohit Shetty's Dilwale this year. Last seen together in 2010's My Name is Khan, Khan and Kajol are due to start filming their movie reunion. Dilwale, co-produced by Shetty and Khan's wife, Gauri Khan, is due out on December 24. Industry experts are already predicting that it will break box-office records – here are five reasons why they could be right.
1 Rohit Shetty is the director
Shetty, who started his directorial career in 1991 at the age of 17 as an assistant director to filmmaker Kuku Kohli on Phool Aur Kaante – the debut film of Ajay Devgn, Kajol's husband – has made a mark with his comic capers. His second directorial venture, 2006's super-hit comedy Golmaal: Fun Unlimited starring Devgn, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor and Sharman Joshi, brought him fame and spawned a series of sequels. The drama Sunday (2008), also starring Devgn, cemented Shetty's reputation as the go-to director for comedy films. Shetty has previously directed SRK in 2013's Chennai Express. The action comedy, which also featured Deepika Padukone, went on to become the highest-grossing Bollywood film that year. If that's what Shetty can do with SRK alone, imagine what he can do with the SRK-Kajol pairing.
2 An SRK-Kajol film has never failed at the box office
Whether starring as Raj and Simran in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995) or Rahul and Anjali in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Khan and Kajol have been a hit with cinemagoers in all their films. Movies that have featured the duo have always done well at the box office since they were first paired together in 1993 in Abbas-Mustan's Baazigar. The film proved to be the Bollywood breakthrough Khan was in search of, as well as Kajol's first commercial success. The next film they did together was Karan Arjun in 1995. The family drama's box-office takings were 10 times its budget.
But their most memorable pairing was in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. The film broke box-office records, won 10 Filmfare Awards, and is one of the industry's biggest success stories. SRK and Kajol have done two other films together: Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001), both of which were incredibly well received.
3 The music is by Pritam
Dilwale owes its soundtrack to musical powerhouse Pritam, who has composed for some of Bollywood's biggest blockbusters including Jab We Met (2007), Love Aaj Kal (2009), Bodyguard (2011), Cocktail (2012), and Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (2013). With more than 100 soundtracks under his belt, Pritam knows what clicks with the audience, and we can expect some excellent music in this film. As Indian films go, if the soundtrack is a hit, so will the movie be.
4 Veteran actors Kabir Bedi and Vinod Khanna
Adding more star power to the cast of Dilwale are two of Bollywood's eternal hunks: Kabir Bedi and Vinod Khanna. Bedi, 69, has appeared in more than 60 Indian films, and has also worked in Hollywood on several films and television and theatre projects. Trivia alert: he played the role of Gobinda in the James Bond movie Octopussy (1983), and claims to be the only Indian actor to have appeared in a 007 movie so far. Khanna, 68, is now an active politician and has starred in more than 141 films since he made his debut in 1968. He was honoured with a Filmfare Lifetime achievement award in 1999.
5 Bollywood's favourite onscreen couple
SRK and Kajol’s chemistry remains unmatched. Few other Bollywood pairings have worked so well, and the two stars easily rank alongside Amitabh Bachchan-Rekha, Rajesh Khanna-Sharmila Tagore, Dharmendra-Hema Malini and Raj Kapoor-Nargis.
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