From Tomatina to Memes: The Tomatoes Craze and the Iconic ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ Connection
While the topic of concern at the moment is the price hike of tomatoes and that has also sparked a meme fest and funny reels on the internet, one is reminded of the Tomatina festival in ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’. The Zoya Akhtar film starred Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif, Kalki Koechlin, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol. The Tomatina festival shown in the film for the song ‘Ek Junoon’ remains one of the major highlights of the film.
As the film completed 12 years on July 15, here’s recalling the time when the makers said that they had flown in 16 tons of tomatoes from Portugal. During the film’s release, producer Ritesh Sidhwani had said, that to make the festival look authentic, they had to get 16 tons of tomatoes from Portugal as the tomatoes in Spain were not ripe.
Reportedly, just the cost of tomatoes and getting them flown was about Rs 1 crore. Zoya had also revealed at the time of release that they shot the tomatina festival at the same place where it actually happens. Hence, they had to shut down the Bunyol town for it. The residents of Bunyol were extremely sweet and in turn, they celebrated Tomatina twice last year, once for Spain and once for India.
The director further added that the festival is close to our holi and the world turns red for the day. While they had fun shooting it, it wasn’t all rosy. In Zoya’s words, ‘it was a logistical nightmare’ for the producer.
Over the past 12 years, ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ has turned out to be a cult. The film, its moments and the dialogues have become a part of the popular culture and how!