Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol’s romantic song ‘Gerua’ from Dilwale remains one of the most memorable Bollywood songs for its breathtaking visuals. From dramatic landscapes to the chemistry between the two stars, almost every frame of the song looked carefully designed for the big screen.
But one of its most striking elements had nothing to do with Bollywood.
The half-destroyed aircraft seen behind Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol was actually a real abandoned plane wreck in Iceland. The aircraft was already lying on the country’s black-sand plains when the Dilwale team arrived to shoot the song.
The real story behind the mysterious aircraft
The wreck is located at Sólheimasandur, a vast black-sand area in southern Iceland. Over the years, the abandoned aircraft became an unusual landmark, attracting visitors because of its isolated location and dramatic appearance.
Shah Rukh Khan later spoke about the location in a behind-the-scenes video and recalled how surreal it was to see a broken aircraft sitting in the middle of such a vast landscape.
He explained that the plane had made an emergency landing in 1973. Fortunately, everyone on board survived the incident. The damaged aircraft was subsequently abandoned at the location, where it remained for decades.
When the Dilwale team came across the wreck during their Iceland schedule, they saw an opportunity to turn the unusual setting into part of the song’s visual world.
How the wreck became part of ‘Gerua’
Rather than being a specially created Bollywood set, the aircraft was simply a real piece of Iceland’s landscape. The filmmakers used the location to add another layer of drama to the song.
The contrast was striking. Shah Rukh and Kajol’s romantic moments were filmed against Iceland’s vast natural surroundings, while the weathered aircraft added an almost surreal element to the frames.
The result was a visual combination that audiences had rarely seen in a Hindi film song at the time.
The plane’s battered appearance also complemented the larger visual style of Gerua, which moved through dramatic landscapes and showcased the scale and beauty of Iceland.
One of the song’s most unforgettable visuals
Released in 2015, Gerua quickly became popular among fans of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. The song reunited the iconic on-screen pair after several years and became one of the major highlights of Dilwale.
The abandoned aircraft eventually became one of the images most closely associated with the song. For many viewers, however, its history was less familiar than the romantic scenes filmed around it.
The fact that the wreck was not built specifically for the movie makes the story even more fascinating. What looked like an elaborate Bollywood production design was actually a real abandoned aircraft sitting in the middle of Iceland.
A location that found a new life on screen
The Sólheimasandur wreck had already become a remarkable part of Iceland’s landscape, but its appearance in Gerua introduced the location to millions of Bollywood viewers around the world.
The song transformed the forgotten aircraft into a cinematic landmark, proving once again how an unexpected real-world location can become an unforgettable part of a movie.
Years after Dilwale released, fans continue to remember Gerua for its music, Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol’s chemistry and its stunning Iceland visuals. And behind those iconic frames lies a fascinating story: the mysterious plane was not a Bollywood creation at all—it was a real aircraft wreck that the filmmakers discovered in Iceland and turned into a memorable part of cinematic history.
