Back in the 90s, when the world was young, people used to be much more relaxed about just stumbling over to the neighboring set and doing a quick funny cameo.  Sometimes a quick, funny, fourth wall breaking cameo (those are the best!).  Not like a big appearance for a song, like Shahrukh in Kaal or Aishwarya in “Ishq Kameena”.  Or a carefully planned mini-appearance, like everybody in Om Shanti Om.  Or one of those medium things, like Aish in Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam or Shahrukh and Tabu in Saathiya.  No, just a sort of “Hey, I was over here having lunch with you anyway, how about I be in your film?” kind of appearance.  Here are 5 of the best ones that I remember!

1. At the end of Kabhi Haa Kabhi Naa (which is a pretty cute movie in general), there is a really cute cameo.  Shahrukh has just seen the girl he likes end up with someone else, so he is feeling down.  Not like Devdas down (it’s not that kind of a movie), but more like Archie Andrews down.  But, as he sits sadly with his trumpet, a girl walks up and asks for directions.  At first he barely looks up, but then he finally does, and it’s Juhi Chawla!  (They’d just co-starred in Darr and Raju Ban Gaya Gentlemen, so I guess she was willing to do him a favor).  Her character isn’t Juhi Chawla, of course, she is some nice girl who just moved to town and needs help finding an address.  So we know Shahrukh’s character is going to be fine, he can pick up his broken heart and run after this new girl, starting off on yet another romantic adventure.  And this is the only one of these cameos I couldn’t find a simple clip of, but if you look at this whole movie clip and just skip to 2:28, you can see the Juhi part:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYM56jCvV3g

1. Duplicate has an amazing one!  Unlike the rest of the movie, which is not so amazing.  The key to appreciating Duplicate is that it is a remake of a Jerry Lewis movie, The Big Mouth (obscure later Lewis.  India always picks the most interesting films to remake!), and that Shahrukh is doing a spot on Jerry Lewis imitation the entire time.  Anyway, in the middle of Duplicate, Shahrukh is sending his mother out of town on a train.  He is complaining that his mother is leaving and he will never be married.  And then Kajol wonders into the frame!  “Tujhe Dekho To Yeh Jaane Sanam” starts up on the soundtrack, he taps her on the shoulder and asks “Mujhse Shaadi Karoge?”  She makes a classic Kajol face and sneers “You?  NEVER!!!” and then raises her hand to wave at someone out of frame and calls out “Raj!”  It’s like a mini-DDLJ sequel!  Simran on her honeymoon!  Oh heck, it’s so good, let’s just go to the clip:

(Espanol!  If your Spanish is better than my Hindi, feel free to correct me in the comments)

3. Okay, this is another awesome 4th wall breaking one!  In Har Dil Jo Pyar Karoge, which is a gender flipped remake of While You Were Sleeping, Rani Mukherjee is in a coma, her family is gathered around, Salman is pretending to be her boyfriend, and the family wants him to put sindoor on her forehead!  Salman freezes because he is actually in love with Priety, Rani’s best friend.  But before he has to make a decision, Shahrukh bursts into the room!  “This is my wife!”  What?!?!?  Rani’s family is stunned!  And, Interval!  Can you imagine being in the theater going “whaaaaaaa?” all interval?  And then we come back, Shahrukh is doing his whole emotional talking thing, asking Rani why she is so quiet, what happened, stop this, he is Rahul!  He is here!  And then a doctor and two orderlies come in and quietly take him away.  Because that’s not his wife!  He is mad!  And after he is dragged out, who should come in, but Baby Anjali!  The same actress!  From Kuch Kuch!  To apologize, and explain that her father never recovered from the death of her mother.  Sad, right?  And, very odd.  But then it becomes less sad, and much odder, at the very end of the film when Salman Khan declares his love through song, and who should show up to duet with him, but Shahrukh Khan again!  Why?  I don’t know!  I guess he had nothing better to do that day? Both the insane with grief character and the famous superstar?  And again, let’s go to the clip:

4. There was supposed to be a notable friendly in K3G, which was cut and relegated to the deleted scenes.  Karan filmed a sequence, during the time when Hrithik was staying with Shahrukh’s family in London, where the whole family goes shopping, all the girls flirt with the guys, the guys fail to respond, and each gets slapped.  It’s cute!  Also, it sets up a sexy Shahrukh and Kajol scene later that also got cut.  In this, Kajol is considering buying black evening gown, Shahrukh makes fun of her, and in the later (also cut) scene, she comes out in the dress and seduces him.  But we didn’t get to see that scene until the DVD extras, because instead of more SRKajol sexy goodness, we had to watch Johnny Lever double talk at the Eid celebration for 20 minutes!  Anyway, the friendly appearance!  This is back when Abhishek was engaged to Karisma, and was launched opposite Kareena in Refugee, and was filming Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon with her.  It’s cute!  I’m guessing he was in London for vacation or something and just volunteered to wonder on set, ask for the time, and wonder off.  The best clip I could find includes some of the other scenes on either side, but they are all worth watching:

5. Speaking of Abhishek and the Kapoor girls, there is another friendly appearance by Karisma in Yeh Dillagi.  Yeh Dillagi is of course a remake of Sabrina, with Kajol playing Audrey Hepburn and Akshay Kumar as Bogart.  Except it’s way more dramatic and less cynical than Sabrina.  Unlike William Holden, Saif actually is really in love with Kajol.  He gives her up at the end, so she and Akshay can be happy, and then drives off.  Only to bump into yet another girl sitting by the side of the road with a suitcase!  The same way he met Kajol after she returned as a famous model!  And, it’s Karisma!  Which, at the time, made perfect sense.  She’s cute, and had time available in her schedule, why not?  But, today, it just seems odd.  Because he’s married to her sister!  Her sister, who was only like 14 at the time they were filming this, and who was probably on set visiting.  Ick!  Yuck!  Weird!  And yet still, if you can managed to forget that, this bit is cute.  And kind of makes you wish they had co-starred more often.

6. And, bonus, the only time in recent years I can think of where we have had this sort of 4th wall breaking randomness.  In the middle of Heyy Babyy (the extra ys are for “why am I watching this?”), our hero Akshay is trying to win back his true love and the mother of his child, Vidya Balan (this is back when no one knew what to do with Vidya, so she was stuck playing boring love interest roles).  But!  Vidya has made arrangements with Anupum Kehr (who is also not really in this movie, but just wandered in for the song) to marry his son, Raj.  Who shows up in the middle of a song, only to be convinced by Akshay and friends to walk away.  What makes it 4th wall breaking and cool is that Shahrukh is not just named “Raj”, but he and Anupum do their little father-son game thing from DDLJ, and there is reference to his old girlfriend, Simran! That reference is not in the clip below, but if you feel like spending $2.99, you can stream the whole movie and see it right before the song starts!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_DsKsZuitI