Karan Johar has accepted an invitation to bring his 1998 directorial debut back to the Scottish Highlands it made famous, with the festival's 81st edition set for 2028.
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is going back to where Rahul and Anjali's story first found its scenery. Karan Johar has accepted an invitation to screen his 1998 directorial debut at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2028, marking the film's 30th anniversary, Variety first reported.
The invite came out of a meeting Johar hosted this week at Dharma Productions' Mumbai office with Scotland's First Minister John Swinney and David Smith, interim executive director of Screen Scotland. The conversation was broader than one film. Swinney and Smith were in India talking production partnerships, co-production deals and talent exchange between Scotland's screen industry and Bollywood.
But Kuch Kuch Hota Hai kept coming up, for good reason. Before Johar took his unit to Eilean Donan Castle, Glen Coe, Tantallon Castle and Inchmahome Priory, no major Hindi production had shot so widely across Scotland. The film's love triangle, Shah Rukh Khan's Rahul caught between Kajol's Anjali and Rani Mukerji's Tina, with Salman Khan as Anjali's fiancé, played out against landscapes that Indian cinema hadn't really used before. That choice stuck. Scottish tourism boards have leaned on the film's imagery for years, and Swinney made the connection explicit in his statement, saying the film "holds a special place in the hearts of communities across Scotland and beyond."
EIFF CEO and festival director Paul Ridd called it an opportunity the festival "jumped at," framing the 2028 edition, its 81st, as a chance to honour "some of the most iconic stars of Bollywood cinema on screen." Other guests are expected to join the anniversary screening, though who exactly hasn't been confirmed, and EIFF hasn't set dates for 2028 yet.
There's a nearer-term festival to get through first. EIFF marks its own 80th anniversary next, running August 12 to 18, 2027, with submissions opening in January. That edition comes off the festival's 2024 revival under Ridd and producer Emma Boa, after a gap in its history.
For Johar, the Edinburgh trip is a long way off. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was his first film as director, made when he was still in his mid-twenties, and it set the template, college campus, unrequited love, a reunion years later, that Dharma Productions has returned to repeatedly since. Johar and Khan went on to make Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and My Name Is Khan together, with Khan popping up again for a cameo in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.
Whether Kajol, Rani Mukerji or Salman Khan will join Johar in Edinburgh hasn't been addressed by either side. That's the detail worth watching for as 2028 gets closer.
Be the first to comment
Join the argument. No password, just your email or a passkey.