Watching Bollywood movies has always been a part of my life. My parents loved to watch movies and I have watched them almost all my life. It was therefore quite natural that when Qayamat se Qayamat Tak and Maine Pyar Kiya released, I would watch them and fall in love with those movies. I was in Class 8 or 9 at the time.
In fact I learnt what romantic love was all about when I watched Aamir Khan romance Juhi Chawla or Salman Khan woo Bhagyashree. We had a VCR at home and would rent these movies so many times. Every time my friends came over to spend the day with me, we would end up watching these movies.
I would get totally involved in the stories and feel the joy or the pain of the leading characters. When Aamir and Juhi died in the climax of QSQT my heart broke. The scene where Aamir jogs against the setting sun is inscribed on my heart as one of the best scenes I have ever seen.
And then when I watched Maine Pyar Kiya, I wished for a love story exactly like that. The lovely songs, the sweetness of Bhagyashree’s character and of course, the smoldering sex appeal of Salman Khan! When Salman Khan promises to earn the Rs. 2000 once more as the notes were wet, I howled at the unfairness of it all. The teenage version of me daydreamed so much about them. I even had a scrapbook full of Maine Pyar Kiya postcards and posters of them in my room.
It was not until college that I fell a third time for Shahrukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. He was sweet and sexy at the same time and again I wished for someone like Shahrukh who would want to marry the girl the right way instead of running away with her. His phenomenal rise to become King Khan was something I admired immensely and found it greatly inspiring.
Of course, life happens and for quite many years it was all about building a life and career for myself. However, I never really lost sight of the Khans or their movies and managed to watch one from time to time. In parallel what was happening in their lives also caught my eye. When Salman Khan was embroiled in court cases, I felt for him and when Aamir divorced his first wife Reena I felt sad at the end of a marriage. Most recently, when Shahrukh’s son was arrested, I hoped that they would find nothing against him.
Today whenever I have some free time, I watch the 90s movies or interviews and clips with the three Khans and I realize that even though they are stars and far removed from my life, they are my childhood heroes, as I have grown up with them and I will always love them for entertaining me and millions of others so well. And yes, I will always care about their wellbeing too!
So, thank you Mr. Aamir Khan, Mr. Salman Khan, and Mr. Shahrukh Khan for gifting lovely dreams to me and so many others like me and making us believe in the impossible!