Best scenes, possible sequel: 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' cast reunites as film turns 10

There are few Bollywood-produced gems that have managed to stay with us decades later. Be it Rakyesh Om Prakash Mehra's rebellious Rang De Basanti, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus Devdas, Karan Johar's family drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham or Zoya Akhtar's tale of friendship Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD), each one of them holds a special place in our hearts. The latter, a 2011 masterpiece, recently completed 10 years since its release.

Celebrating the occasion, the cast and crew (sans Bagwati, sigh!) of ZNMD sat down with celebrated Indian host Vir Das to recall some of the fondest memories from the film shootings. One of the scenes Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif reminisced was where the duo was asked to go underwater, reported Hindustan Times. While the Kaabil star termed that particular scene his favourite, Kaif revealed she was terrified!

“For me, that was the entire film in one moment," Roshan shared. "Right from the time I heard the script, till we shot it, it was the target—it was the moment I was striving to reach. There were no words. Zoya was able to communicate the abstract into my mind. There was no real explanation. It was just something you understood, or you did not. I understood the moment, and it was beautiful on paper. We tried a lot of takes, but something was going wrong.”

And, then he decided to conquer his fears. “The water was freezing, and I was protecting myself from the cold. So, I was pretending to come out of it. The shot starts with me on the ladder of the boat. Finally, I said that’s what is making me hold back. I am not allowing myself to be impacted by the water. In the final take, I just went in. Zoya said, ‘Are you sure? The water is really cold!’ I froze. I came out, and it was exactly what that moment needed.”

Kaif, however, revealed, “I was terrified. Everyone else were semi-pro divers. When we were shooting that underwater sequence where Hrithik has that epiphany, what actually was happening was that I was digging my nails into his hand because I was so scared. It was my first diving experience, like that.”

The team also laughed over the song Ik Junoon, where they all danced at the Tomatina festival. Roshan recalled, “I didn’t have tomatoes for three or four months. None of us could tolerate the presence of tomatoes after that song. The kind of smell that we suffered!”

But what many may not know is that some thought the War star was making a huge mistake when he signed ZNMD. The actor disclosed that his father’s friends thought the film “was a big mistake” on his son’s part.

"I remember when I signed this film on, a lot of my father’s friends were very concerned about me. They thought I was making a big mistake because I was playing one of the parts among three characters and it was certainly not the central character. The general rule at that time was that you have to uphold the star status, and I knew this film was talking about exactly the opposite. It kind of empowered me because it’s a story that I believed in, and I thought, 'to hell with the status', which is merely something that people give you. The work that you do is something that comes out of your own desire,” mentioned Roshan.

Should we expect a sequel any time soon? The 47-year-old actor in a conversation with ETimes said, “The potential for a sequel is always there. It definitely can be done, be it in 5 years or 15 years, that doesn’t matter. In fact, that would be really cool!” He added, “But I don’t think Zoya is the kind who would want to make it, just because people want it. She has to stumble upon an instinctive, inspired thought about the sequel that would then fuel her mind to take those steps into building it into a script. I think that is something that’s providence, if it happens, it happens. The potential does exist as the film is about life and friends — some very interesting things could happen. The more time we spend away from these characters… them coming back after years, it would be interesting to revisit their journeys.”

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