Dil Chahta Hai turns 25: When Farhan Akhtar said film was not about Goa road trips

Farhan Akhtar had earlier spoken to India Today about how Dil Chahta Hai's 10-minute Goa sequence became iconic despite not being a road film. He also recalled his worst Goa trip, when a breakup left him driving back alone.

In Short

• Farhan Akhtar earlier looked back at Dil Chahta Hai's enduring Goa connection
• The filmmaker said the Goa part of Dil Chahta Hai is only 10 minutes
• He clarified that Dil Chahta Hai is not a road film at all

For anyone who's watched Dil Chahta Hai, it is difficult to talk about it without talking about Goa. Twenty-five years after Farhan Akhtar’s directorial debut released, the film’s Goa stretch has become almost as iconic as the friendship at its centre. The drive to Goa, the stop at Chapora Fort and the idea of three friends spontaneously taking off together have made Dil Chahta Hai synonymous with road trips for an entire generation. The funny part is that Farhan Akhtar did not really intend to make a road film. In fact, the Goa portion of Dil Chahta Hai is only about 10 minutes long.

During the promotions of Madgaon Express, which he produced, Akhtar exclusively told India Today about how that brief portion of the film ended up having a much bigger cultural impact than he had anticipated.

“You know, what I find really interesting actually is that the Goa part in Dil Chahta Hai is about 10 minutes long. They just ride down, have 1-2 scenes over there, one very profound, deep scene, which I mean, I think, registered very, very strongly at the fort. And then they sing some songs, and then they come back," he laughed.

Those few minutes, however, stayed with people. Goa became an intrinsic part of the Dil Chahta Hai experience, and the film itself began to be remembered as a road movie. Young people often travel to spots where the film was shot and re-enact sequences or pose similarly for photos, like the leads Aamir Khan, Akshaye Khanna and Saif Ali Khan.

“But, it’s amazing to me how that little event in the film just captured so many people’s imagination and everyone, when they talk about road films, Dil Chahta Hai is not a road film at all. They just drove down to Goa and came back, and that was it, and there was one song. But they call it a road film. They’re like, this film is about Goa. I don’t know what it is about that," Farhan added.

Perhaps what people connected with was not really Goa, but what the trip represented. Dil Chahta Hai arrived at a time when the idea of three friends taking off on an unplanned trip, with no great agenda beyond spending time together, felt aspirational. The Goa sequence captured that particular freedom of being young, having your friends around and deciding to simply go.

But Farhan believes the reason that portion of the film stayed with audiences has less to do with the location and more to do with the feeling it captured. “It’s difficult for me to explain. I just think it captured in that thing a certain exuberance of youth. You know like, listen, let’s just go in the moment," he said, adding that spontaneity is also what makes plans with friends so difficult and, at the same time, so memorable.

The filmmaker said, “You know what I mean? Plans never materialise. When you make plans with your friends, the chances that they materialise are good 2%. Right? But if you just say, let’s go now, there's a 90% chance that things will happen.”

That may well explain why the Goa trip in Dil Chahta Hai became much bigger than its screen time. The film was not really telling audiences to go to Goa. It was capturing the feeling of being young enough to say yes to an impulsive plan because you knew your friends would come along. “So, I think it just captured that kind of invincibility, the exuberance, the, I don’t know, just that of friendship and that stayed with people,” Farhan said.

Interestingly, Farhan’s own association with Goa was not always quite as carefree. In the same chat, he spoke about what he described as his worst Goa trip, when a girlfriend broke up with him during the holiday, and he ended up driving back alone.

He said, “The most horribly wrong experience was during one of my trips to Goa. Some girl I was dating at that time dumped me while we were there. I got dumped and drove back myself. So that was the most lonely drive back I have ever been in my life. When you are going with somebody, you feel so cool ‘me and my girlfriend are on the road’. And then you have to come back all alone. The playlist changes completely (from your way up). That was one memorable experience for sure.”

Twenty-five years later, the friendship, the growing up, the relationships, the songs and even that little Goa trip continue to resonate with audiences. Perhaps that is why Dil Chahta Hai isn’t just a film people remember, but one they return to at different stages of their lives.

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