While it wasn’t received with the same hosannas as Barjatya’s previous movies like ‘Hum Aapke Hain Koun’ and ‘Maine Pyaar Kiya’, ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’ was certainly a Diwali spectacle to behold. Salman Khan, Karisma Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu, Mohnish Bahl headlined this movie and the supporting cast included Neelam, Mahesh Thakur, Reema Lagoo, Alok Nath and many more. It instantly caught the attention of the audience with a star cast that, at that time, seemed like the mother of Marvel movies.

Sooraj Barjatya’s ensemble family drama released a few days before Diwali in 1999. It’s the movie that really put the style in Bollywood. While ‘KKHH’ has inspired as many memes as fans, it continues to be one of the most celebrated young romantic movies of our generation. ‘KKHH’ was the stuff of dreams for young millennials and gen x. The combination of Karan Johar’s urban sensibilities with a young Manish Malhotra’s western fashion influx and the charisma of SRK, Kajol and Rani Mukerji’s triangle was too much charm for the audience to ignore. Karan Johar’s debut film released a few days before Diwali in 1998. Modern dance movies have still not come close to the quality of ‘DTPH’. It’s expected because Madhuri Dixit, Karisma Kapoor and SRK are all known for their dancing skill and credentials. It is considered a dance movie classic by viewers across generations. You could say, Yash Chopra’s movie was one of the early implementations of ‘high concept’ filmmaking in India. This wasn’t just any other love triangle movie with great music, this featured a proper plot centered around dance competitions and professional dancing.

Indian family audiences have always enjoyed their song and dance routine in films, but ‘DTPH’ took things to an all new level. Needless to say, the sight of SRK, Madhuri Dixit and Karisma Kapoor made the audiences throng to the theatres in big numbers. The late Yash Chopra’s answer to Hollywood’s dance musicals, ‘Dil Toh Pagal Hai’ (DTPH) released in October 1997 just a day after Diwali. But now that we’ve given them their due mention, let’s jump in and revisit the Diwali classics. You’ll find that such cult classics like Aamir Khan and Salman Khan’s ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ (1994), Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol’s ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ (1995) and Aamir’s ‘Raja Hindustani’ (1996) are missing from the list because of that exclusive 25 year recap. These are movies you can still watch with your family this Diwali weekend and probably for the next few decades as well. For this week’s #BigStory, ETimes takes you back a glorious 25 years to recap the most memorable Hindi films that released on Diwali and have continued to capture the audiences’ imagination and fascination over the years.

Golmaal again cast