The Show Goes on and on for Raj Kumar Gupta

Fourteen years after the film was first released, Raj Kumar Gupta still catches the matinee show of Dilwale Duniya Le Jayenge—every weekend

The first time Raj Kumar Gupta saw Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was with his then girlfriend. Fourteen years have passed since. The door-to-door salesman is now married with three daughters. But one thing hasn’t changed. Every weekend, Gupta visits the Maratha Mandir theatre for matinee show of DDLJ. Well in time to avoid shelling out Rs 50 for a ticket that costs Rs 16. The partly crowded, partly empty in pockets theatre has a row of ghunghat-hidden women, noisy children and the odd patriarch, giving the seedy place an air of a ‘family audience’. “This is a family picture after all,” says Gupta. There is one dialogue which makes it worth it every time for him. “Raj tells Simran he hasn’t come here (Punjab) to elope or steal her from her parents. He may have lived in England but he’s Indian at heart. He’s come here to make her his dulhan.” A dad of three girls, Gupta appreciates this. And how many times has he seen it? A few hundred, at least.

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Shubhangi Swarup