Though his first production here, Main Hoon Naa, turned out to be a big hit, an 11 year long association between Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla and Aziz Mirza, that had begun with Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, ended in 2003. Also, Dreamz Unlimited was dissolved and Shah Rukh Khan went solo with Red Chillies Entertainment. Surprisingly though, Shah Rukh Khan and Aziz Mirza never worked again after Chalte Chalte even though the film was a hit. A lifetime haul of 20 crores was considered good enough 17 years back and though the film hasn’t enjoyed the kind of shelf life that many other Shah Rukh Khan romantic musicals have, it is still at least remembered fondly. Made at a budget of around 10 crores, some part of it accentuated due to re-shooting involved, Chalte Chalte took a good opening of 1.50 crores and went on to net double its budget.
With a real treatment meted to it, the film struck a chord with the audiences. Audiences too liked what they saw in the film as a heartwarming romance with right dose of emotions like love, sadness and reunion was played out well.
Music by Jatin-Lalit and Aadesh Shrivastava was already popular by then as songs like ‘Chalte Chalte’, ‘Tauba Tumhare Yeh Ishaare’ and ‘Suno Na Suno Na’ turned out to be major chartbusters. The film’s shooting resumed with Rani in the lead now and the release took place exactly 17 years back on 13th June 2003.
A man pursues a woman who is already engaged and eventually gets married to her. With the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Chalte Chalte, she was now playing a parallel lead with King Khan and though she was the second choice, this pairing also invoked quite some interest amongst the distributors as well as exhibitors. With Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Jas Arora, Satish Shah. On the other hand things were different in 2003 as now Rani was a major star. Back then, many actresses were approached by Karan Johar for playing the part that Rani Mukerji, a newbie back then, eventually did.