Bollywood's love without borders

Text by Sujata Chakrabarti, Picture Courtesy: Publicity Stills Love knows no race, colour or geographical separations. In a run up to Valentine's day, listing out a few Bollywood films that explored the very essence of romance beyond boundaries...Directed by John Jeffcoat, the film is about Tod Anderson (Josh Hamilton) who arrives in India to head an outsourcing call centre and falls in love with one of the Indian employees there, played by Ayesha Dharker. Text by Sujata Chakrabarti, Picture Courtesy: Publicity Stills

Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, this is a endearing love story between an Indian played by Shreyas Talpade and Jasmine (Lena Christensen) who is a part-time Thai masseuse.

Apart from talking about love beyond boundaries, the film also speaks about the Indo-Pak conflict. Abhishek Bachchan plays a refugee who falls in love with Naaz (Kareena Kapoor) who belongs to a family trying to cross the Indo-Pak border illegally.

Starring Aamir Khan, 'Lagaan' was set in the Victorian period of the British Raj. The film that was also about the farmers' uprising against the British government, depicted Elizabeth's (Rachel Shelley played the sister of a British commanding officer) love for a simple farmer, Bhuvan (Aamir).

In this 1991 film directed by Randhir Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor played the lead along with actress Zeba Bakhtiyar from Pakistan. Due to an accident, the character played by Kapoor strays into Pakistan and falls in love with Henna (Zeba), a native of the country.

In this 1966 box-office hit, Ashok (played by Joy Mukherjee) goes to Japan and falls in love with Asha (Asha Parekh) who is of Japanese origin.

'Gadar: Ek Prem Katha' also focuses on the love story between an Indian and a Pakistani national. Sunny Deol played a Jatt Sikh who falls in love with a Muslim girl Sakeena (Amisha Patel) much to the ire of her parents.

Released in 1992, Sridevi played a double role in this film that became a huge hit in both India and Afghanistan. Mehndi (Sridevi) is the daughter of Badshah Khan (Amitabh Bachchan) and Benazir (also Sridevi) who comes to India from Afghanistan in search of her father and falls in love with Raja (Nagarjuna) who thinks Badshah Khan murdered his father.

Dev Anand plays Prashant, a pilot who goes in search of his lost sister to Nepal. There, he meets Shanti, (Mumtaz), a local with whom he falls in love and who he marries later.

This 1968 spy thriller starring Mala Sinha and Dharmendra was the biggest blockbuster of the year. Meenakshi Mehta (Mala Sinha), an Indian residing in Beirut is in love with former flame Sunil Mehra (Dharmendra) who is an Indian spy and who travels to Beirut to take over the position of another spy who has been recently killed.

Set in British India, it is the love story between Kisna, a young local (Vivek Oberoi) and Katherine (Antonia Bernath), the daughter of a ruthless British collector.

Directed by Gurinder Chadha, this film is a take on the Jane Austen classic 'Pride and Prejudice'. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's character was based on the iconic Elizabeth from Austen's novel (her name in the film is Lalita Bakshi) and she marries American businessman William Darcy towards the end of the film, despite all the misunderstanding between them in the beginning.

Directed by Aparna Sen, this heart-rending film tells the story of a schoolmaster from Bengal (Rahul Bose) who marries his Japanese pen friend over letters and phone calls but cannot meet her because he cannot afford a plane ticket to Japan. Yet, they keep their love alive over the years. The film, however, ends on a sad note.

Written by Aditya Chopra, 'Veer-Zaara' once again portrays the love between an Indian and a Pakistani citizen. Shah Rukh Khan plays Indian Air Force pilot Veer Pratap Singh who falls in love with Zaara (Preity) after he rescues her from an accident.

Directed by Anurag Basu, Hrithik Roshan plays a dance teacher in Nevada who falls in love with a Mexican woman (Barbara Mori). But mayhem follows after their secret love is discovered.