MUMBAI : Twenty years have passed since Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji starred in the hilarious romantic comedy Hum Tum. The film's memorable themes of gender differences and the story of two strangers falling in love made it memorable. Now, as the film celebrates its 20th anniversary, director Kunal Kohli revisits its creation, a movie that changed romantic comedies in Hindi cinema.

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Hum Tum was inspired by the 1998 film When Harry Met Sally, and started the trend of modern romantic comedies in Bollywood, which continued throughout the decade. The filmmaker talked about the casting challenges the film faced, first considering Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, and Vivek Oberoi before settling on Saif Ali Khan, who shocked everyone by winning the National Award for his role.

He recalled, “I don’t remember if we approached him [Aamir] before or after Hrithik. But Aamir was going through his divorce with Reena and told us, ‘I am not even in that frame of mind right now. It is a rom-com, I am not sure, I will give it a miss.’ He wasn’t in that space. So we were like ok no problem. Then Vivek Oberoi was actually doing the film. He had said yes for the film, so he was on, but things didn’t work out and then he wasn’t on. He was doing City of Joy and a lot of other things, so we were just not getting the dates. It just didn’t work out. Then we left that chapter.”

Kunal recalls telling Hrithik Roshan the script after Mujhse Dosti Karoge. Although he thought the script was good, he had doubts about the part and his ability to play it given his current film projects.

“He loved the script. He said, ‘I am not confident of the films I am doing right now, I don’t know how many of them will work or what will happen to them, and I don’t know whether I am in the right frame of mind to do this.’ He said to wait for a couple of his films to release and then let’s take a call. But Adi felt it would be too long to wait for two years, see how his films fare and then decide, so he suggested we let this go. Because even Hrithik wasn’t sure if he will do it, he was very honest that he is not sure if he is right for this space,” said Kunal.

Two weeks after Hrithik Roshan's Lakshya, Hum Tum was released.

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