New Delhi: Actor Saif Ali Khan shared that films such as Hum Tum and Ta Ra Rum Pum were made in a “different world”. Khan said that at the time, filmmakers and audiences looked toward the Western world a lot, but things have changed now.
“And we were travelling a lot, everything was abroad, and I’m very happy we did that because it gave a lot of chances to travel,” he told Bollywood Hungama.
Released in 2004, Kunal Kohli’s Hum Tum starred Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji. Inspired by When Harry Met Sally (1989), the film was shot across the Netherlands, Paris and New York, with only some sequences shot in Mumbai. It became the sixth-highest-grossing film of the year.
Similarly, Siddharth Anand’s Ta Ra Rum Pum, released in 2007, was a sports drama set in the United States. Khan played the character of a stock-car racer, and most of the film was shot at locations in Milwaukee Mile, Wisconsin and Rockingham Speedway, North Carolina. The film was the result of a three-film collaboration between Walt Disney and Yash Raj Productions.
Khan said that the filmmaking landscape has changed a lot since, with more India-focused stories. He added that the representation of small-town stories has also increased.
“We are making stories which are more about India today, which is great… Small town and things like that rather than abroad really, but I’m happy that I had that chance,” he said.
Films focused on the West were common between 2000 and 2010. During this period, filmmakers increasingly looked toward foreign locations for their shoots and also introduced novel concepts to the Indian public. Films such as Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Salaam Namaste (2005), Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), Namastey London (2007) and Dostana (2008) were either set largely abroad or built around NRIs.
After 2010, Bollywood began moving more toward stories rooted in India, with filmmakers increasingly exploring small towns and middle-class lives. Films such as Masaan (2015), Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015), Newton (2017), Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017), Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (2017) and 12th Fail (2023) focused on small-town stories.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)