When Karan Johar launched his ambitious ‘Beautiful People Doing Dumb Stuff in Beautiful Buildings’ universe in 1998, he offered fans to see their favourite comic book characters come to life on the big screen.

While the director stays true to the different storylines and characters that featured in the comic books, there have been some noticeable changes in the characters from what they were in the movies vs how they were in the original comic books. Some of the main characters had to be altered to fit into the movie universe and to set up the ultimate ensemble movie where they all come together to fight a dangerous villain. Karan Johar’s debut film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was incidentally based on the first comic book in the universe, titled ‘Dead Mom Writes Some Letters and Ruins Weddings’. The plot revolved around a dead mom leaving some letters for her daughter that would go on to ruin a wedding after a few years. Here are some of the most iconic Kuch Kuch Hota Hai characters as they were in the movie vs the comic books…

Rahul

Played by Shah Rukh Khan in the movie, the male lead plays an important role in the comic books. He singlehandedly made basketball unsexy and said words like ‘squeeze me’ unironically. Karan Johar did a pretty remarkable job of keeping most of the character’s physical traits, including the metallic locket with the ‘cool’ pendant and a long tail that he kept hidden cleverly using different props.

Older Anjali

When Anjali was shown in college, she pretty much looked exactly how she did in the movies, except for the hair. In the comic books, Anjali had blonde streaks in her bob because of a bleaching accident. But because Kajol, the actress who played older Anjali in the movie, is allergic to bleach, they removed the streaks bit from the character’s look. The grown-up version of Anjali, however, was vastly different than how she was in the comic books. Karan Johar didn’t include the large Swastika neck tattoo that comic book Anjali got to impress a neo-nazi she had become obsessed with and made her wear sarees instead of the Oompa Loompa suits comic Anjali preferred.

Tina

An integral character in the universe, Tina (played by Rani Mukherjee in the movies) dies very early on in the story. But she is shown to be very beautiful and fashionable, both traits accurately represented in the movie. In the comic books, she has blue skin like the Na’avi people from Pandora, and a scaly back to repel any predators. This was omitted from the movie.

Mrs. Khanna

Fareeda Jalal essayed the role of Rahul’s mother perfectly. She teamed up with her granddaughter to make sure her son found the love of his life and lose his virginity. Her character was also pretty true to how she was drawn in the comic books, the only difference being that the comic book character only spoke in Latin and the movie Mrs. Khanna never did.

Aman

While there is no character named Aman in the comic books, Karan Johar combined two important characters from the comics to create Aman who was played by Salman Khan in the movie. Aman is, therefore, the combination of Ted, the creepy guy who hung out near the kids’ summer camp even thought he didn’t have a kid of his own, and Drogonsmir, the crypt keeper of Tina’s tomb. This is why Aman has the body of Ted and the scaly horns of Drogonsmir.

Child Anjali

Rahul and Tina’s daughter Anjali is very different from how she was in the comic books. For instance, comic book Anjali is actually a 43-year old Russian woman who is pretending to be a child and sleeps in a coffin. The movie Anjali is a bright kid who shows no indications of actually being a murderous 43-year-old Russian. The only similarity between the two characters was that both of them could read at a very young age, as demonstrated by their ability to read their dead mom’s letters when they were just a year old.

Rifat bi

The aggressively Muslim character Rifat Bi, who is the guardian of Anjali’s virginity in the comic books is represented fairly accurately in the movies, with the exception of her not being a 15-foot giant woman whose weapon of choice is a club carved out of a boulder.

Principal Malhotra

In the comic books, the principal of Rahul and Tina’s college and Tina’s father, is a sewer rat who judges women who wear short skirts and creepily stalks a female teacher around the school. In the movie, he is accurately portrayed by Anupam Kher.