New Delhi, June 14 -- Twenty-five years after Dil Chahta Hai redrew the map of Hindi cinema, Saif Ali Khan has offered a rare look at what it was like inside the production that changed Bollywood's visual language, its approach to male friendship, and the career trajectories of everyone involved.

"Farhan was born to direct," Khan said in a recent interview ahead of the film's silver jubilee in August. The statement carries weight because Dil Chahta Hai was Farhan Akhtar's debut as a filmmaker. He was 27 years old when he wrote and directed three of Bollywood's biggest male stars through a story about growing up that had no villain, no melodrama, and no song-and-dance sequences set in Swiss meadows.

Khan described the 105-day shoot as so...