Calm down people: Maratha Mandir to continue screening Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge

Following the outcry of fans all over the social media, it now seems that Mumbai’s Maratha Mandir will continue the daily screening of the iconic Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol starrer Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. On 19 February, Yash Raj Films issued a press release saying that the screening of the film will be discontinued altogether. [caption id=“attachment_2114883” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image.[/caption] Then, on the same day The Hindustan Times had reported that Maratha Mandir management, bowing to public pressure, had decided to run the film for a week more. It quoted Manoj Desai, executive director of Maratha Mandir cinema house as saying, “In the meanwhile, we will decide its fate.” On Sunday The Indian Express quoted Yash Raj Films as saying, “authorities have decided to immediately reconsider their decision. Given this, it has been mutually decided to continue the screening in the same 11:30 am morning show – without breaking the uninterrupted run of the movie.” While the film was initially moved to a screening time of 9.15 am, such is the fan following of this iconic film, that Maratha Mandir has even decided to play it at its original time of 11.30 am for this coming week. Desai had told Hindustan Times, “We had requested Yashraj Films to change the show timings to 9.15am in order to accommodate new release, and they obliged. But due to public demand, we have decide it would be back to 11.30 am for this week.” Fans were left heart broken when a Yash Raj films statement had announced that, “After a historic 1000 week run, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge made its final curtain call at the iconic Maratha Mandir today.” They had said in the statement, “While the theatre management was happy to continue the film for as long as it continued to draw in the audiences, owing to logistical issues of their staff having to work inordinately long hours to accommodate an additional early morning show, it was mutually decided to end the films historic & record breaking run.” As the news appeared, the hashtags Maratha Mandir and Evergreen DDLJ started trending on Twitter with people expressing their disappointment. The cult romantic film, which marked the directorial debut of Aditya Chopra, completed its 1000 weeks in December last year. Shah Rukh and Kajol had got together at Yash Raj Films studio on the occasion to relive many moments of the film, which catapulted them to the star status.