Mohabbatein

Mohabbatein (transl. Romances) is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic drama film written and directed by Aditya Chopra, and produced by Yash Chopra under the banner of Yash Raj Films. The ensemble cast is led by Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai, with supporting roles by Uday Chopra, Shamita Shetty, Jugal Hansraj, Kim Sharma, Jimmy Sheirgill, and Preeti Jhangiani. Loosely inspired by the American film Dead Poets Society (1989), the narrative centres on Narayan, the authoritarian principal of Gurukul, a prestigious all-boys college, who strictly forbids romantic relationships. After his daughter Megha takes her own life due to his opposition to her romance with a student, Raj, the latter returns years later as a music teacher and inspires three students to challenge Narayan’s rules and pursue love.

Originally intended to mark Aditya Chopra’s directorial debut, Mohabbatein became his second film following the success of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). The film was shot primarily in the United Kingdom between October 1999 and July 2000, with cinematography by Manmohan Singh. The sets were designed by Sharmishta Roy, while Karan Johar handled costume design. The soundtrack was composed by Jatin–Lalit with lyrics by Anand Bakshi.

Released theatrically on 27 October 2000, Mohabbatein received mixed-to-positive reviews, with praise directed at its performances, music, and production design, although its length and pacing were critiqued. The film went on to become a major commercial success, grossing ₹900 million (US$20 million) worldwide, and emerged as the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year. At the 46th Filmfare Awards, it won four awards including Best Supporting Actor (Bachchan) and Best Actor (Critics) (Khan). It also received accolades at the IIFA Awards, Zee Cine Awards, Screen Awards, and Sansui Viewers' Choice Movie Awards.

Narayan Shankar has been the principal of Gurukul, a prestigious all-boys school, for 25 years. He firmly believes in tradition, honour and discipline and is particularly opposed to any kind of romance, threatening to expel any student who falls in love. Raj Aryan soon joins Gurukul as a Music teacher. Raj's belief on spreading romance angers Narayan to the point that he eventually decides to fire Raj. At this point, Raj reveals he is actually Raj Malhotra, a former student of Gurukul who was expelled many years ago for falling in love with Naryan's only daughter, Megha, who committed suicide after Narayan expelled Raj. Raj promises to honour Megha's memory by spreading love throughout Gurukul to override Narayan's tradition, honour and discipline, a challenge which Narayan accepts.

At the backdrop of this battle are three students, Sameer, Vicky and Karan, all of whom are in love. Sameer is in love with his childhood sweetheart, Sanjana, who is already in a relationship with Deepak. However, when Deepak mistreats Sanjana, she realises that Sameer is her true soulmate and the two get together. Vicky is in love with Ishika, a student from the neighbouring girls' school. Though Ishika initially dislikes Vicky, when the two are paired for a dance competition, they fall in love. Karan falls in love with a widowed woman named Kiran; with Raj's help, he manages to get a job as a piano teacher for Kiran's nephew and slowly wins over Kiran's love, despite her initially being distant.

Narayan realises that Sameer, Vicky and Karan are forcing students to break the rules. In retaliation, he decides to tighten the rules. However, Raj continues to encourage the boys to fall in love. Eventually, the three boys face expulsion as Narayan views their actions as the catalyst for the other boys rebelling. Raj speaks out on their behalf, persuading Naryan that what they did was Raj's fault, begging Naryan to not expel them. Narayan agrees, but on the condition that Raj leaves after telling the student body he had misguided them in an attempt to persuade Raj that he has won. However, Raj reminds Narayan of how his daughter left him and how Raj himself, who considered Narayan an elder, is now also leaving him. Reflecting on Raj's words, Narayan now realises that his anti-romance policies have been misguided and also caused the death of his own daughter. The following morning, Narayan openly apologies to his students and steps down as principal, asking Raj to take over and spread his beliefs of love to all the students.

The cast is listed below:-

Prior to the production of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Aditya Chopra had begun writing Mohabbatein as his intended directorial debut. However, he considered the subject matter of Mohabbatein too mature for a first film and instead made Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge his debut, postponing Mohabbatein to be his second directorial project. Chopra briefly considered making a thriller for his sophomore film, but ultimately returned to Mohabbatein, explaining: "I realised that there is something in that story that keeps drawing me to it, so one day I just shut my thriller file and casually picked up my [...] Mohabbatein file—that one simple action decided my second film for me."