Dimple Kapadia told Farhan Akhtar that if he calls her 'aunty' she would not be a part of 'Dil Chahta Hai': 'Why aren'y you calling me by my name?'

Farhan Akhtar's 'Dil Chahta Hai' remains a cult today even though it's been more than two decades since the film released. It starred Akshaye Khanna, Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta, Sonali Kulkarni. However, it's Dimple Kapadia's casting which left everyone surprised. Recently, Farhan spoke about the experience of working with the 'Bobby' actress on 'Dil Chahta Hai' and how she told him not to call her 'aunty'.

Farhan said at the Waves Summit 2025, "When Dimple arrived on the set… So I had spoken to her, I had cast her in the film but the one thing I had not done was that I had not called her anything because I can’t call her Dimple aunty, she would get very upset and I can’t call her Dimple because I thought she might feel that I am being too rude so I would just say ‘ji ji, yes yes, okay okay, yes ma’am’."

He further added, "When we working also, we started work and if I had to call her, I couldn’t say ‘call Dimple’, so I would say ‘are you ready ma’am? Please come.’ So after 2-3 days, she asked, ‘why are you not calling me by my name?’ I said, ‘I don’t know what to call you’. She said, ‘you better call me Dimple. if Dimple aunty comes out of your mouth, I am leaving this film,” he shared with a laugh and called her an “amazing person to work with.”

When the film celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2021, the Akhtar had said that he would have probably scrapped 'Dil Chahta Hai' if Dimple Kapadia had said no. "I think if you had said no, I’d probably have had to scrap making the film. Tara was written for you and thank my lucky stars that you said yes. Forever grateful," he wrote.