Trivia for
Veer-Zaara (2004)

photos

board

trailer

details

• The character of Saamiya Siddiqui is based on Pakistani human rights activist and well-known lawyer Asma Jehangir.
  
  
• Amitabh Bachchan suggested Gurdas Mann to Yash Chopra, believing that Mann's voice would best suit the "Lodi" song.
  
  
• Yash Chopra had approached every music director to score the film, but couldn't find what he thought was the appropriate music for the film. His specific requirement was "old-world music," away from Western influences and having a strong melody line, with acoustic instruments. Madan Mohan's son, Sanjeev Kohli (also the CEO of Yash Raj Films), suggested some of his father's compositions. Out of the hundreds of tunes in Mohan's archives, 35 were tested to see if they would fit the mood of the film and eleven were selected by Aditya Chopra.
  
  

• The film was originally going to be called "Yeh Kahaan Aa Gaye Hum", named after the song from Silsila (1981), but Yash Chopra felt that "Veer-Zaara" went better with the epic mood of the film. However, a song in the film twisted the title and became "Yeh Hum Aa Gaye Hai Kahaan".
  
  
• There was no bus service between Amritsar and Lahore. However, recently there have been demands and plans from both sides of the border for such a bus service, and on 11 December 2005, a year and a month after the movie released, the service was given a trial run. A success, the service commenced on 20th January 2006.
  
  
• The role of Saamiya Siddiqui was originally intended for Aishwarya Rai, but it didn't work out.
  
  
• Anupam Kher stars with his wife Kiron Kher in this film, although they don't share the same frame.
  
  
• Hrithik Roshan's favourite film, as stated in the DVD's bonus features.
  
  
• Veer's prisoner number is 786, which Saamiya sees as a good omen. According to the Arabic language system, which assigns numerical values to each letter, the number 786 is the numerical value of the phrase "Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim" ("In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful"), the first verse in the Qur'an.
  
  
• Karan Johar designed all of Shahrukh Khan's costumes.
  
  
• The prison scenes were all shot in one day. Shahrukh Khan had to wear a wig to portray the aged Veer in those scenes.
  
  
• The song "Aisa Des Hai Mera" holds a musical segment taken from "Yeh Desh Hai Veer Jawaano Ka," a song from Naya Daur (1957). A then-young Yash Chopra had served on that film as assistant director to his brother, director B.R. Chopra.
  
  
• Yash Chopra cast Preity Zinta because she was known to portray tomboys and Westernized girls, and he wanted someone who could easily transform into a character who was the complete opposite.
  
  
• Director of photography Anil Mehta slipped a sepia tint into the film to give it a "golden oldies" mood, and to convey the feeling of nostalgia and memories in the film. This kind of cinematography was later copied by other filmmakers.
  
  

• SPOILER: As of 2007, out of the five films Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta have done together, this is the only one that has their characters together as a couple by the end of the film.
  
  

Related Links