Dil Chahta Hai

Movie · 2001 · 6 people

Farhan Akhtar made his debut as a director with Dil Chahta Hai ("the heart desires"), a Hindi coming-of-age comedy-drama from 2001 that he also wrote. It reached cinemas on August 10, 2001, as the first film of Excel Entertainment, the new company of producer Ritesh Sidhwani. The music is by the trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy with lyrics by Javed Akhtar; it runs 185 minutes.

Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna play three inseparable college friends adjusting to adulthood, relationships and diverging paths, with Preity Zinta, Sonali Kulkarni and Dimple Kapadia in pivotal supporting parts. Set in contemporary urban India, it explores friendship, love and self-discovery. Akhtar wrote it from personal travel diaries.

Shot in India and Australia, it was one of the first Hindi films to use sync sound. Critics praised its modern sensibility, script and music, and especially the performances of Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna. Weaker in rural areas but a success in the cities, it grossed 397.2 million rupees worldwide, the year's fifth biggest Hindi film. It won two awards at the 49th National Film Awards, including Best Feature Film in Hindi, and seven of thirteen nominations at the 47th Filmfare Awards. A cult favorite, it is seen as a landmark for youth storytelling in Hindi cinema.

Director	Farhan Akhtar
Production company	Excel Entertainment

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Aamir Khan Actor · 61 years old Akash Malhotra Saif Ali Khan Akshaye Khanna Preity Zinta Sonali Kulkarni Dimple Kapadia

Last reviewed: November 3, 2026

Through different eyes

AI-assisted editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives. They are not reader reviews; those are below.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Farhan Akhtar's debut feels like an experiment in how the sound and tone of mainstream Indian cinema could change. Being one of the first Hindi films shot with sync sound is more than a technical footnote: it is the right choice for carrying natural dialogue and the speech rhythms of young city dwellers. That the story grew out of personal travel diaries also explains a structure built on characters and relationships rather than plot. My reservation is the length: a coming-of-age story this long, making room for three separate character arcs, risks losing its rhythm in the middle. Critics singling out Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna is a good sign that the ensemble holds together.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

Dil Chahta Hai's box-office pattern says as much as its story: succeeding in the cities while staying weak in rural areas is a clear sign of the gap in expectations between urban and rural audiences in early-2000s India. The film focuses on upper-class young people fresh out of college, on friendship, love and finding themselves; this new urban generation seeing itself on screen may well be the key to its cult status. But that focus also confines the film's world to a narrow social circle, and the troubles of well-off characters may not carry the same weight for every viewer.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humor and heart.

A coming-of-age story about friendship and love; its subject speaks to teenagers and adults. For the youngest, both the subject and the length are a challenge: the film is very long, and watching it in one sitting takes patience. It's more enjoyable with high-school and college-age kids, with a break in the middle.

Dil Chahta Hai

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