With the movie in the 28th year of its release, we bring you some interesting trivia about the making of the film...

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Revisiting 1942: A Love Story - 42 interesting facts about the epic romance

Team CE

Published:6th Dec, 2020 at 3:48 PM

1942 A love story was Anil Kapoor's second film with Vidhu Vinod Chopra after Parinda (1989).

Aamir Khan was signed on to play the lead role, but wasn't able to give dates to Vidhu Vinod Chopra, so he was replaced with Anil Kapoor.

Anil Kapoor had initially refused to do the film as he believed he couldn't pull off such a romantic character at that stage.

The first Indian film to use Dolby Stereo.

Madhuri Dixit was the original choice for the film's lead. In fact, Javed Akhtar wrote 'Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To' keeping Madhuri in mind. However, due to scheduling conflicts, she opted out of the movie.

In the original script, Vidhu Vinod had written a supporting role - the younger sister of Madhuri Dixit - for Manisha Koirala. When Madhuri left the film, Manisha stepped into the lead role.

Manisha Koirala had failed her initial screen test and then did commendably well, when she was given a second chance.

The core plot of the movie was reported to be inspired by the 1992 Kannada movie Mysore Mallige, which is based on the 1942 book of the same title by KS Narasimhaswamy

R.D. Burman's last work as music director. The film was released after his death.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra wanted Shahrukh Khan for the role of Munna. But by the time the shooting started, Shahrukh was already playing lead roles. The role was eventually played by Raghuvir Yadav.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra had gone to London and purchased Dolby stereo sound for the film's premiere at Metro cinemas in Bombay.

The film received thirteen nominations at the 40th Filmfare Awards, winning nine of them.

R.D. Burman won his last Filmfare Award for Best Music Director and Javed Akthar bagged the Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist. Kumar Sanu won his 5th consecutive Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback.

Kavita Krishnamurthy won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer, the first of her hat-trick feat.

Nana Patekar was offered Anupam Kher's role. But Nana wanted Jackie Shroff's role. This caused a major argument between Vidhu and Nana.

The music in the film's intro is from Gustav Holst's The Planets - Mars the bringer of war.

One of the three Jackie-Anil films where Jackie plays a strong author-backed supporting role and has no heroine cast opposite him - the other two being Parinda and Roop ki Rani.

Interestingly when Jackie and Anil started out, in both Andar-Bahar and Yudh, Jackie had the leading role and the main heroine was cast opposite him.

Geeta Dutt's song from Devdas ' Aan milo, Aan milo, shyam sanware' was later recreated for the flute part for Kuch Na Kaho in 1942 A Love Story..

The film is set in 1942 when the British Raj was declining and the famous Indian historical movement 'Quit India' movement was in place.

'Ek Ladki Ko Dekha' was sampled by Korean rapper Drunken Tiger.

The film was the first ever to be given a U/A rating while featuring an elaborate kissing scene, which was previously considered inappropriate for the UA rating.

The film was in the making for four years.

'Ek Ladki Ko Dekha' was remixed in the album BMW 2(Bad Mad Wicked) By DJ Jiten. This was the first-ever remix done for this song. This was in 1994.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra started working on this project after Parinda 1989.

R.D.Burman's assistants, Basu-Manohari recorded the background score of this film.

Ashwini Bhave auditioned for the lead role but was rejected on the spot.

There were speculations in the industry that after Lamhe flopped, Vidhu was thinking of casting Sanjay Kapoor in Anil's role.

Asha Bhonsle has no songs despite this being an R.D.Burman film.

In 1991, Vidhu Vinod Chopra wanted to title the film 'Neha'. Later he changed his mind.

The song Pyar Hua Chupke Se was sampled from Aisa Kyon Hota Hain from Ameer Aadmi Gareeb Aadmi.

Ek Ladki Ko Dekha had a cover version remix in the album Love 2 Love by 2Kool. This was in 1995.

This was the first Anil Kapoor-Jackie Shroff starrer where there were no dialogues exchanged between the two actors.

Aaj Kal Paaon Mere from Ghar was sampled for Pyar Hua Chupke Se.

The film had a theatrical release in Canada.

The film was a turning point for Manisha Koirala's career, and she gained overnight popularity after the release.

The locations were mostly chosen from Himachal Pradesh, District Chamba, and its small-town Dalhousie, Khajjiar, and Kala Top to depict pre-independence India.

The film's adjusted gross amounts to Rs 896.4 million.

Mithun was considered for Jackie's role, when the latter developed date issues. But the distributers made Vidhu to somehow retain Jackie.

Devdas, Rang De Basanti, Mission Kashmir cinematographer Binod Pradhan handled the camera for 1942: A love story.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Kamna Chandra cowrote the film along with Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

The film's production design and sound design were highly lauded, with the movie winning almost all awards in that category for the year.