After 23 years of its release, Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein has been re-released in theatres on August 30. The movie marks the Bollywood debut of the leading duo Dia Mirza and R Madhavan. Saif Ali Khan is also a part of the project directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. The film is receiving a positive response in theatres. However, when it was first released in 2001, it did not perform well at the box office. In an Instagram Live session, Dia Mirza and R Madhavan talked about the project, and Dia recalled how the film’s box office failure broke their hearts. As per an India Today report, she said, “We were travelling from one place to another for 14-18 hours, constantly going from one place to another. We would often catch up on our sleep in the flight. The film was also shot that way – we had shot in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Mumbai. The film’s release date was announced before we finished the bhaag daur.”
She continued, “We had got 5 minutes of peace amid the madness, and you had said to me ‘It is a very special film and it will really connect with the audience’. I said, ‘I hope so’. Then the film released and people did not really go to the theatres just to watch it. It broke us; it broke our hearts so much because there was so much anticipation, so much expectation. And we worked so hard.”
R Madhavan also recounted how he and Dia Mirza started blaming themselves for the box office debacle. “There are times when you feel what was our shortcoming. It was our first film and we had sincerely worked on it. Then, we started blaming ourselves that had I got fitter or done the film more sincerely, or had the costumes been better… anything. You start looking for the imperfections,” he said
Talking about the positive response Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein is getting now, R Madhavan added, “It’s been 23 years now, Dia, and for 23 years, the film has been aired on some TV channel or the other. It is there on OTT platforms too and people have watched it somewhere or another. But now, when I see, houseful shows, even after all that, I am confused as to why people want to pay money to watch the film! Why are they coming to the theatres? This means they still want to experience the film on the big screens.”
Jackky Bhagnani, Anupam Kher and Hemant Pandey are also a part of Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein’s cast.
