Dil Chahta Hai Story & Synopsis

The movie tells the story of three friends graduating from college and transitioning into life as adults.

Each character has a different outlook towards life, and love in particular. Akash (played by Aamir Khan) does not believe in love and says that one should never keep a girlfriend for more than two weeks. Sameer (played by Saif Ali Khan) is genial, well-meaning, desperately romantic and confused. He is prone to romantic infatuations; he is convinced that he has found true love whenever he is attracted to a girl. Siddharth, or Sid, (Akshaye Khanna) is a painter. He is the most serious of them all; dedicated to his work and not interested in trivial romances.

Akash is not only a cad in his personal life (breaking hearts, proposing to a girl named Shalini in jest), but a mischief-maker in his friends' lives. He engineers a breakup between Sameer and Sameer's girlfriend, then proposes a vacation trip to the beaches of Goa.

Sameer, predictably, falls in "love" in Goa, with a pretty Swiss girl, a story that ends in disaster. He returns home to find that his parents have arranged a meeting with a potential marriage prospect. He resists as he doesn't want an arranged marriage, but the instant he sees the girl (Pooja, played by Sonali Kulkarni), he realizes that she is the one. Unfortunately, she already has a boyfriend. Sameer has to hide his unrequited love and content himself with her friendship.

Sid, in the meantime, is falling in love too. Tara (played by Dimple Kapadia), an older divorcee and alcoholic, moves into a nearby house. Sid befriends her and falls in love with her, even though such a relationship is considered scandalous in Indian society. Everything goes wrong. Akash's offensive remarks about this relationship create a rift in their friendship and Sid and Akash refuse to talk to each other. Sid's mother is horrified. Tara hears that Sid has quarreled with friends and family because of her and feeling that she has ruined his life, refuses to see him.

Akash is also experiencing romantic upheaval. His parents send him to Sydney to work in the family business. On the flight to Sydney, he meets Shalini again. She has no reason to trust or like him, but after they run into each other repeatedly, they both start to feel a certain "something." She presses him to tell her how he feels; he refuses. She then declares that she is returning to India to marry Rohit, her fiance. Akash lets her go, then realizes that he can't live without her.

Akash returns to India to win Shalini back. He proposes to her at her wedding, and in a nod to Bollywood tradition, she accepts with the blessing of her parents.

Meanwhile, Sameer and Pooja fall in love after she dumps her boyfriend.

Sid's story is more tragic. Tara is hospitalized with cirrhosis, and even though Sameer engineers a reconciliation between Sid and Akash, she dies with Sid at her bedside. 6 months later, the 3 friends regroup in Goa where Sid meets a new girl. They share a smile and Sid realizes that life goes on.