These Facts About Jab We Met Will Instantly Make Want To Watch The Film All Over Again

The 2007 film Jab We Met needs no introduction. Directed by Imtiaz Ali, Shahid Kapoor, and Kareena Kapoor Khan’s last film together as a couple released to immense love from audience and critics alike. The story revolves around Aditya (Shahid Kapoor) who has lost all hope in life, and Geet (Kareena Kapoor Khan), a bubbly, chatty girl who lives her life to the fullest. The two meet on a train journey, which changes their lives forever.

While the songs (Mauja Hi Mauja, Yeh Ishq Haaye) continue to be a must-listen on everyone’s playlists, the dialogues, too, are rattled off by fans even today. As it completes 10 years of its release today, here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about the film:

1. Remember the shady receptionist of Hotel Decent? His name is Teddy Maurya, and he was an art director on the film when he was asked to play the role. A lot of actors had reportedly refused the role because of less screen time. Not just the receptionist, he even played the role of a security guard in the same film!

2. The film was originally titled Punjab Mail.

3. The character of Geet was inspired by a girl Imtiaz Ali met on a bus in Delhi. “Geet was inspired by a girl I met while travelling in a bus. She was from Delhi and she was incessantly talking and she was talking in a way that... she was saying stupid things of course but also very personal things. About not going out when on her period — and then she said main itna kuch bol rahi hoon iska matlab yeh nahin hai ki aap kuch galat socho... so every thought that was coming to her head she was saying and there was a certain pure innocence about her... and that became Kareena’s brief,” he told DNA in an interview.

4. The film was such a resounding hit that the screen-count increased in its fourth week, after Saawariya, the launch-pad of Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor, failed to create magic at the box-office.

5. Pavan Malhotra initially turned down the role of Kareena Kapoor Khan’s elder brother in the film. “I told Imtiaz I didn’t want to do the role because it didn’t excite me enough. But then he told me it was the fourth or fifth most important character in the film. That’s when I agreed to do it. The role I am playing needs to add something to the film. I am not going to do a role that is not involved in the plot in anyway,” Pavan told us in an earlier interview.

6. Who can forget the famous ‘Ratlam Ki Galliyan’? But the truth is going to blow your mind. The film was actually never shot in Ratlam! Imtiaz had opened up in an earlier interview, “Locations were all mixed up. We were shooting Ratlam in Manali, which I would avoid today. We never went to Ratlam to shoot and we cheated many places. Manali has been shot in Shimla, and Shimla has been shot in Manali. We were doing all that because we were in a big hurry. We had to complete the shoot in a certain time because both the leads –—Kareena and Shahid had to start other films.”

7. The budget for the film was limited, so much so, that the team got only 21 days for pre-production! The top shots showing the railway station were actually done through stop animation technique. Don’t believe us? Take a look.

8. The role of Kareena’s grandfather was played by the legendary wrestler, actor Dara Singh. Imtiaz had revealed to us in an interview after his death in 2012, “There was one particular incident when we wanted to shoot in a room that was very precious to the landlady and she wasn’t giving us permission to shoot in it. She was around 80 years old and she finally said she would let us shoot if we introduced her to Dara Singh and let her give him a glass of juice. And he agreed. That room was his room in the movie. Every day, that lady came to the set in her best sari.” Dara Singh was also very uncomfortable while saying the dialogue “Mumbai mein toh nangi ghoomti hogi” and had requested Imtiaz to change it.

9. The original choices for the film were not Kareena and Shahid, but Bobby Deol and Ayesha Takia.

10. Anshuman, the antagonist in Geet’s life, was played by Tarun Raj Arora, who had almost given up on his acting career and went to Bangalore to open a restaurant when the film came his way.

11. The opening lines of the Singh Is King song 'Teri Ore', that became a rage as a romantic number, were actually written for the song 'Tum Se Hi' in Jab We Met. But they eventually got scrapped and were picked up again in the Akshay Kumar movie.