DDLJ musical casts white man as Shah Rukh Khan’s Raj. Fans will not have it
India Today
Shah Rukh Khan’s iconic Raj has been renamed to Rob in the DDLJ musical. The musical is being directed by Aditya Chopra.
Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol’s iconic film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is being remade into a musical in the West. The 1995 release continues to enjoy popularity in India and the world over and is truly an iconic film. DDLJ is being remade into a Broadway-aimed production, Come Fall In Love- The DDLJ Musical, and fans are not happy. The reason being the makers have cast a white man as Shah Rukh Khan’s Raj in the musical. Raj will be played by Austin Colby and the character has been renamed from Raj to Roger Mandel aka Rog.
On the other hand, Simran, that was originally played by Kajol, will be played by Indian American actor Shoba Narayan. The character name for her will remain unchanged. Celebrity chef Vikas Khanna was amongst those who expressed his disappointment over this. He wrote in a series of tweets, “I got super excited when I friends informed that DDLJ (my fav film) was coming on Broadway. We decided to fly. Then I read that ICONIC Raj is played by Austin Colby as Rog Mandel. I might never see THIS.”
Raj is our childhood, youth, love & pride.Many Westerners will never understand what DDLJ means to us.I just saw HOUSEFULL show of @kiterunnerbway on BROADWAY w all colored cast. It received standing applause.Let’s not make our kids feel less on our own stage #DDLJMusical pic.twitter.com/VZZZazMd37
The musical is set to open in San Diego on September 14, 2022. The musical is directed by Aditya Chopra, who directed the original film.
In an Instagram post, Colby mentioned that he wasn’t familiar with the original film. “"A few months ago, I had never heard of the film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) or known of it’s global impact. I am in awe of this beautiful love story, celebrating Bollywood film at it’s finest."
ALSO READ: Aditya Chopra to direct Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayege as a Broadway musical
