Locations in Europe: London (U.K), Sanen Montbovon and Gstaad (Switzerland)
Storyline
Star(s): Shahrukh Khan and Kajol
Songs/Dance/Action Sequences: Major part of the narrative located abroad.
Indian/ International Crew: Collaboration with international crews.
Language: Hindi
Director/Producer: Aditya Chopra/Yashraj Films
Associate Producer/Executive Producer: Pamela Chopra, Uday Chopra (Associate Producers), Mahen Vakil (Executive Producer)
Film Location Analysis
By Ranjani Mazumdar
Dilwale draws its central premise from a tradition of 1960s romance films set in hill stations. Those films often saw families opposed to the romantic liaison of the protagonists; the couple had to go through intense opposition and difficulties before they were legitimately accepted by both sides. Songs, travel, fashion, and scenic sites were the hallmarks of these 1960s films. Dilwale retains the core thread of these 1960s films, but the location of the romance moves to Europe and the unfolding of family conflict, drama, and reconciliation takes place in the North Indian state of Punjab. The train, a recurring feature in 1960s films, is replaced in Dilwale by the Eurorail. It is in this careful orchestration of the film’s mise-en-scene that we see shifts in themes, art direction, costume, music, and dance numbers, all geared to appeal to an Indian diaspora while at the same time also drawing in an Indian audience wanting to be "modern" and yet very "Indian."
Raj and Simran belong to different social backgrounds. Raj is all set to leave for a holiday in Europe with his other rich friends. Simran wants to go with her girlfriends but knows her father will not let her. In a poignant scene, Simran addresses her father and says she wants only one month’s freedom, and following that, she will do everything that he expects of her, including an arranged marriage in Punjab with someone she has never met. Simran says she wants to experience her entire life’s dreams and aspirations in that one month. The father is moved by the intensity of Simran’s desire to travel with her friends and relents. It is this month-long travel across Europe that changes Simran and Raj’s lives.
The film opens with Simran’s father, Baldev, at Trafalgar Square in London, shot early in the morning to avoid the crowd. Baldev Singh, is feeding the pigeons that swarm this site. As he performs this activity, his mind wanders, and the film cuts to visuals of mustard fields in India (Punjab), where Baldev’s imaginary feeding of pigeons continues near these fields. A song about the homeland beckoning him plays on the soundtrack, and the credits are introduced. When the song ends, we return to Trafalgar Square with Baldev. This intercutting establishes the overall theme of the film: to locate a notion of Indianness beyond the borders of India and showcase these themes of identification with the nation through the clever use of a transnational family’s movement across locations in the world.
Trafalgar Square, a major attraction in Central London, is surrounded by galleries, well-known historic buildings, statues, and monuments. Located in Westminster, London, the Square was named after Britain’s victory in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The Nelson’s Column at the Square was created to honour a war hero. This public square resonates in different ways for large numbers of people across the world since it has been the centre of protests, cultural events, religious gatherings, and just tourism. Recognising a certain familiarity with a place like this, especially for South Asians, Aditya Chopra tapped into its visual intoxication to open the film.
The architectural grandeur of places near Trafalgar Square is also introduced: St. Martin's Church, Buckingham Palace, and a whole host of other buildings. We also move suddenly to the Tower Bridge. These sites are revealed as Baldev walks the streets with his umbrella in hand to finally end up in South Hall, where his convenience store is located. This introduction establishes London through its historic architectural form.
The first meeting of the lead couple takes place in Leicester Square. Raj walks with his friend, while Simran walks with her friends. Both are talking about a plan to visit Europe. Soon after the Leicester Square sequence is the meeting at Kings Cross station, where the two again meet, as fate would have it. Simran and Raj are joining their friends on the Eurorail. As they run around the station to figure out their train number, we get to see the station's layout as a major hub connecting London to Europe. Simran runs and barely manages to get into the train with Raj’s help, and with this, one of the film’s most iconic moments is introduced.
The train itself is the site of certain encounters between Simran and Raj as Europe passes by. The entire European segment of the film is a breezy collation of comic interludes, popular song sequences, and displays of commodities, fashion, and transportation. Instead of the typical hill station of 1960s cinema, we are moving across typical tourist sites in Europe by rail, expensive cars, and by foot. All these sequences were shot in Switzerland. If London is mapped primarily through walking, the European holiday takes many different forms.
Various encounters to propel the romance track are spread out across locations in Switzerland. After a night in Paris (shot in interior space only), the two protagonists run into each other in the streets of Interlaken, a major tourist destination located in the region of the Swiss Alps and the gateway to the mountains. After the Second World War, Interlaken developed as a centre for conferences and conventions. Simran and Raj get separated from their friends after they miss the train to Zurich and end up spending considerable time with each other. The journey from here on is centred on the development of a romance in which matters related to arranged marriages, sexual intimacy, and traditional values are discussed by the two. At the Zweisimmen railway station near Gstaad, Simran buys a cowbell, an iconic moment and object used in the film.
DDLJ saturates the narrative with lush landscape to invoke the full force and power of romantic desire away from home. Some of this romance is situated in the villages of the Gstaad-Saanen land region. In a particular sequence, Simran gets drunk and becomes obsessed with a red dress she spots in a shop window in Switzerland. There is a sudden transition as she is shown in the red dress dancing in the snow with Raj to a popular song, Zara Sa Jhoom Loon Main. The sequence was shot in the small village of Gstaad in the western part of Switzerland. In her drunken state, Simran enters a chocolate shop named Early Beck on the Promenade. The couple is then shown moving across diverse sites, including Jungraujoch, well known for its glaciers and dramatic views of the Swiss Alps.
During their intense journey together, Raj and Simran also stumble upon the St. Mauritius Church in Saanen, which was originally built in the 13th century. The interiors were, however, shot at a different church, named St. Grant Church, in the village of Montbovon. In addition, the Lake of Lungeren in central Switzerland, and the Sanen train station were also used to aid in the development of the romance.
Dilwale's international and domestic success established it as a model for the lavishly staged family films of the 1990s, located in international space. The presence of non-resident Indians (NRIs) and a narrative quest to define "Indianness" irrespective of geographical locations was a deliberate move to reframe ideas of nationhood and tradition for a globalised Indian context. Unlike earlier films, where the NRI was portrayed as a debauched and decadent figure, Dilwale is the first of the 1990s films to reverse this old formula. Dilwale is also the first film of the 1990s that became identified as the trigger for a new form of consumption where a series of practices began to coalesce around popular film culture globally.
At its core, Dilwale needs to be seen as an ambivalent text that struggles to come to terms with the cultural processes of globalisation by trying to maintain a balance between ideas of "tradition," modern cosmopolitanism, and a yearning for the fulfilment of individual desire. The imaginative use of London and Switzerland as "global spaces" in the first half of the film and Punjab as "national spaces" in the second half was orchestrated to deal with all these complex issues.
Additional Information & Links
The film’s success outside India and within the domestic market reflected the changed context of globalisation and the ways in which popular film narratives actively began to cater to diasporic audiences.
The use of scenic sites of Switzerland played a major role in increasing the influx of Indian tourists to the country.
In 2006, the Swiss government felicitated the Dilwale team for its role in promoting tourism. Dilwale has been the longest running film in the history of Indian cinema and still going strong at Bombay’s Maratha Mandir theatre since its release.
http://erwintours.ch/tour-categories/bollywood-in-switzerland/ddlj-anniversary-tour/
https://www.bollywoodpresents.com/dilwale-dulhania-le-jayenge-ddlj/
Tourism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRMRiqwdWqk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6z2YI0e3JQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji-v_qoM3O4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAxJ-slrlvY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_endpz1IKk
https://www.makemytrip.com/blog/dilwale-dulhania-le-jayenge-ddlj-shooting-locations
