When Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was released in 1995, Indians didn’t just fall for Raj and Simran, they fell for Switzerland. Those mountains weren’t just backdrops; they were very much a part of the script of DDLJ. The cowbells, the crisp air, the train that wouldn’t wait, it all looked so impossibly cinematic that an entire generation quietly decided: one day, we’ll go there too. Yash Chopra, already known for turning romance into a religion, painted Switzerland with the same intimacy he reserved for his characters. He didn’t film the Alps as postcards; he filmed them as emotions and as a living metaphor for longing and freedom.
How Yash Chopra Turned Switzerland Into Bollywood’s Eternal Love Story
Start in Gstaad; it is the chocolate-box town in Switzerland that still wears DDLJ like a badge. Walk through its promenade and you’ll find Early Beck, the same bakery where Simran (Kajol) playfully indulged her sweet tooth while Raj (Shah Rukh Khan) looked on. Locals have watched countless Indian couples strike the same pose outside that shop.
Then there’s Zweisimmen, where Simran missed her train, setting off the love story that would redefine Bollywood’s idea of destiny. It’s common to see Indian tourists reenacting that exact moment, their laughter singing across the valley.
Head to Interlaken, where the elegant façade of the Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel gleams in the background of those breezy outdoor scenes. The town’s fountains, bridges, and boulevards still carry whispers of that song sequence, the one where the world looked like it was built only for two.
And then, high above it all, there’s Jungfraujoch, the “Top of Europe.” Today, you’ll find Indian honeymooners wrapped in shawls, taking pictures where Raj and Simran once stood.
Even the lesser-known corners, such as Lauenensee, Montbovon, and Lauterbrunnen, had their moment in the montage. They’re quieter now, sitting in the folds of Swiss valleys, but if you watch closely, you can almost hear a flute riff from Tujhe Dekha Toh Yeh Jaana Sanam drifting through the pines.
The DDLJ Effect: How Bollywood Boosted Swiss Tourism
WONDERFUL FEELING: On the landmark occasion of #30YearsOf #DDLJ, it was a joyous feeling for me to visit the iconic location #MountTitlis in #Switzerland where both #Shahrukh and #Kajol shot some amazing sequences from the film. And to find the poster there was too cool a… pic.twitter.com/20lYlciE0v
— Anupam Kher (@AnupamPKher) October 21, 2025
The DDLJ effect wasn’t subtle in Switzerland. By the late 1990s, Indian travel agencies were packaging “Yash Chopra-style Europe tours.” Switzerland became shorthand for honeymoon goals. By the 2010s, Swiss tourism boards openly acknowledged it: Bollywood was one of their biggest ambassadors. The numbers spoke volumes, Indian tourist arrivals surged, with the Swiss Federal Statistics Office noting figures upwards of 300,000 Indian visitors annually in recent years. For a country with barely 9 million residents, that’s more than just footfall, that’s fandom!
Tour operators on the GoldenPass Line and Jungfrau Railway even created “Bollywood routes,” playing Hindi soundtracks for Indian tourists who wanted to relive their favourite film scenes in real time. For many, Switzerland isn’t just a destination anymore, it is the DDLJ dream.
Switzerland’s Tribute To Yash Chopra And Indian Cinema
It’s so sad when you don’t have anyone who shares your interests. I seriously need someone to go on the DDLJ Switzerland trip with me. I wanna visit those places so bad 🥺👉🏻👈🏻 pic.twitter.com/KLy6Pj78f4
— me.yu (@LuSe109) October 20, 2025
The Swiss didn’t just take the love; they returned it with class. In 2011, the Jungfrau Railway named one of its trains after Yash Chopra, the man who turned their mountains into a movie set for the world’s largest film industry. The train’s silver plate reads his name proudly, gliding through snowfields that once filled cinema screens.
Then came 2016, when a life-sized bronze statue of Yash Chopra was unveiled in Interlaken’s Kurssaal gardens. The statue shows him with a camera, looking out toward the Alps, almost as if he’s still framing the next scene. Locals call him “the Indian director who made our valleys famous.” For Indian tourists, it’s a pilgrimage spot.
Walk through Swiss towns today and you’ll find traces of that cinematic bond everywhere: plaques marking filming locations, souvenir shops selling DDLJ cowbells, and hotels proudly announcing, “Filming location of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.”
Even the Swiss Tourism Board created a Bollywood Trail, weaving through Gstaad, Zweisimmen, and Saanen, narrating stories from the film’s shoot.
The film endures because it wasn’t about Switzerland alone, it was about what Switzerland meant. It captured freedom, beauty, and rebellion in soft focus. The land became the emotional geography of every Indian love story that came after. When Shah Rukh and Kajol danced through meadows, it wasn’t just romance, it was aspiration and a promise that love could exist outside family feuds. Three decades on, DDLJ hasn’t faded; it’s fossilised itself into both Indian pop culture and Swiss tourism.
Cover Image Courtesy: rudybalasko/CanvaPro and YashRajFilms
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