Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar has lodged itself comfortably in pop culture and is often hailed as one of the bets coming of age films in Hindi cinema.

Filmmaker Mansoor Ali Khan has revealed that his 1992 hit Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar was a result of his own “anger” at himself as he had returned to the country after studying in the US for five years, where he simply “wasted” his father’s money. The coming-of-age film was headlined by Aamir Khan and also starred Ayesha Jhulka, Deepak Tijori and Pooja Bedi among others.

In an interview with Zoom, Mansoor, who is the cousin brother of Aamir Khan, revealed the birth of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. While many believe that the film is inspired by Peter Yates’ 1979 film Breaking Away, Manoor said the origins of the film was far more personal.

“Everybody thinks I wrote JJWS after seeing Pater Yates. Breaking Away. That’s not true. Right from 1981 on, I wanted to make a film about a guy who is a loser who finally gets his groove. That’s what had happened to me. I had gone to college for five years in the US and wasted my father’s money. I came back angry and defensive. The whole world was my enemy at that time (laughs). JJWS was born of my anger at that time,” he said.

Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar has lodged itself comfortably in pop culture–also thanks to its chartbuster Jatin Lalit soundtrack– and is often hailed as one of the bets coming of age films in Hindi cinema.

The film is still remembered for its chartbuster track Pehla Nasha, which has continued to be a love anthem for many. Mansoor said the song, picturised on Aamir Khan and Ayesha Jhulka, was shot entirely in slow-motion. “That’s how I had visualized it. In my script, I had written that Aamir’s character Sanju is floating on cloud nine in the song.”

The filmmaker said the process of making the movie is so “vividly etched” in his mind that if ever a book was written about the behind-the-scenes activities of any of my films, it would be on Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, which he described as a film “designed by destiny.”

Mansoor also revealed that it was Nagma, not Pooja Bedi, who was supposed to star in the film, but the former “abandoned” the project four days before it went on floors as she felt it was not a starring role.

“I had told her right from the beginning that she was not the heroine. I don’t want to blame her, but the least she could have done was to inform me. You can’t hang up on me when I’m planning a forty-day outdoor schedule. Later, of course, she came to me and said it was the biggest mistake of her life,” he added.