‘Band Baaja Baaraat’ Made Female Ambition Sexy

When we first meet Shruti Kakkar (a radiant Anushka Sharma in only her third role), we immediately know what kind of person she is. She moodboards her career, will beat up any guy who tries to tease her, and has no time for romance. In contrast, Bittoo Sharma (Ranveer Singh in his debut!) doesn’t pay attention in class, roams around on a motorcycle, and can’t stop eyeing girls. He’s also good at buttering people up: one night, when the hostel serves up its usual weak dal, he rounds up ₹10 from each of his hostel mates and crashes a wedding — for the biryani, of course.

What he doesn’t expect is to run into Shruti, who immediately clocks him and asks him whose side he’s from before he can fill up his dinner plate. Bittoo smoothly lies and says he’s part of the video team, spending the rest of the night videotaping her and proceeding to go on an FBI-level goose chase in Delhi to unearth her full name and location. “If you had put this much effort into college, you’d be a topper!” his friend jokes.

That’s the beauty of Band Baaja Baaraat. Upon its release 15 years ago, newcomer filmmaker and writer Maneesh Sharma perhaps didn’t realize how much he was going to upend the trope of the Bollywood heroine and the hero she gets. Here, Shruti is unapologetically ambitious, and Bittoo both respects her ambition and wants to join her rocket ship. We chatted with Sharma to find out how he pulled it off.