Farhan Akhtar’s directorial debut “Dil Chahta Hai,” which hit cinemas in August of 2001, is about that new generation: graduating from college, being upwardly mobile, financially secure, and able to not care. Akash (Amir Khan), Sameer (Saif Ali Khan), and Siddharth (called Sid by his friends, played by Akshaye Khanna) live with their parents, but their lives are comfortable, and influenced heavily by Western culture. Their hair is spiked with product. They dance to synth-heavy rock-pop music in a club lit by blacklights, dressed in leather pants and tank tops made of fluorescent mesh.
Even the film’s first song—lyrics for the movie were penned by renowned screenwriter, poet, and the director’s father, Javed Akhtar—proclaims this proudly: “We are new/why should our style be old?” The song is nothing less than an anthem for new India. They don’t care what came before. They’re the masters of their own fate.
Source: How Dil Chahta Hai Raised the Bar for Commercial Hindi Cinema | Features | Roger Ebert