‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ Still Running In Its 24 Years!

Yash Raj Films Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) has completed 24 years and seems to be heading to achieve the milestone of running 25 years run at Mumbai’s iconic Maratha Mandir Cinema hall! To date, Maratha Mandir has the distinction of screening Dilip Kumar‘s Mughal-E-Azam (1960) which ran to packed houses for 3 years but DDLJ has broken all the past records including Amitabh Bachchan‘s Sholay that run for five and a half week at Mumbai’s Minerva cinema house. With the completion of 1000 week runs, DDLJ registered its name in the prestigious Guinness World Records for the longest-running film in a cinema hall!

DDLJ marked 24 years on October 20, 2019, and is set to achieve a remarkable Silver Jubilee Year, a 25-year run in one theater.

DDLJ: The Cult Classic Cinema

Manoj Desai stated the film was an instant hit, running 3 houseful shows daily for 75 weeks at Maratha Mandir theatre. Later it was shifted to matinee show and had tremendous response till 500 weeks! Hence it was given an extension. On its 1000^th week, Guiness World Records officials visited Maratha Mandir cinema. They were stunned by its almost 80% occupancy. They awarded the film the record of ‘Longest-running film in a cinema hall! The film is still running in its 1240 plus weeks and has an above 50% occupancy.

Manoj Desai says, “Generally the crowd is youngsters. Our cinema house is close to many colleges. Young boys and girls skip classes and enjoy the cool ambiance at affordable ticket prices.
Besides, since our cinema hall is opposite the Bombay Central station hence many tourists also watch the matinee show. Thus daily we have over 50% occupancy, and on weekdays we have houseful shows. Thus we are not running the film in the loss as quoted by some media in print. We are earning enough.”

Record-Breaking Performance At Box-Office

Besides, tremendous run in India, DDLJ also broke box-office records worldwide and opened doors for the International market. Beyond commercial success, DDLJ also won critical acclaim. The film received the National Best Film Award  for wholesome entertainment. At the Filmfare awards, it made history. It became the first film to receive the entire top category awards: Best Film- Yash Chopra; Best Director- Aditya Chopra; Best Actor- Shah Rukh Khan; Best Actress- Kajol; Best Supporting Actress- Farida Jalal and Best Performance in a Comic Role- Anupam Kher.