Madhuri recalls Sooraj Barjatya’s shoes became mojaris

Madhuri Dixit has taken fans back to the sets of Hum Aapke Hain Koun with a small, affectionate behind-the-scenes detail: Sooraj Barjatya’s new shoes rarely stayed new. Appearing on Kon Honar Crorepati with co-stars Renuka Shahane and Priya Berde, the actor revisited the gentle running joke that followed the director through every shooting schedule.

A director’s telltale shoes

According to Madhuri, Sooraj Barjatya had a ritual. Whenever a new schedule began, he would arrive in a fresh pair of shoes. But he also had a habit of going up on his toes, and the cast would tease him about it. Within ten days, she said, the shoes would begin to loosen.

Renuka Shahane added to the timeline with a laugh: “After fifteen days, they would loosen up even more!” Madhuri completed the arc: “Slowly slowly, their shape would change, and by the end, they would become mojaris!”

The word matters to the story. Mojaris are traditional slip-on shoes, soft and flat; the image of stiff new footwear softening into something closer to a mojari was the punchline for the cast.

Why the memory still lands

The anecdote is small, but the film it comes from is not. Hum Aapke Hain Koun released in 1994 as a family entertainer and remains one of Hindi cinema’s best-known hits. It starred Madhuri Dixit and Salman Khan in the lead, with Renuka Shahane as Pooja and Priya Berde as Chameli. Its songs, relationships and family-centred story gave it a long cultural half-life — and this reunion shows the off-camera warmth was just as real.

For fans, the story does something else too: it humanises a filmmaker whose name is associated with large, carefully staged family sagas. A director who goes up on his toes enough to reshape his own footwear is a director who is physically invested in the shot.

For a film so strongly associated with music and family values, this is the kind of tiny human detail that keeps it feeling alive.

Quick context from the reunion

• The film: Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994)
• The director: Sooraj Barjatya
• The leads: Madhuri Dixit and Salman Khan
• The supporting cast: Renuka Shahane as Pooja, Priya Berde as Chameli
• The reunion: Kon Honar Crorepati

Madhuri also said during the reunion that she was delighted to learn Renuka and Priya were part of the cast, a small note that underlines how long it has been since the actors shared screen space. The conversation on Kon Honar Crorepati was less about blockbuster numbers and more about bonds formed over long schedules.

On a rewatch, that context changes the way the ensemble scenes feel. The comfort between the characters is not only good writing; it came from actors who were laughing together off camera.

Source: The Times of India