Baazigar

Baazigar is a 1993 Indian Hindi-language romantic thriller film directed by Abbas–Mustan and produced by Venus Movies. It stars Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in lead roles, while Siddharth, Shilpa Shetty (in her film debut), Dalip Tahil, and Johnny Lever appear in supporting roles, with Raakhee in a special appearance. Its soundtrack was composed by Anu Malik. An unofficial remake of the 1991 Hollywood film A Kiss Before Dying (directed by James Dearden, starring Matt Dillon and Sean Young), the film is about a young man seeking to avenge the fall of his family.
Baazigar was Khan's breakthrough role as the sole lead (his first as an anti-hero), along with being his eighth film out of eighty throughout his 30-year career, Kajol's first commercial success and Shetty's film debut.
Baazigar was released on 12 November 1993, coinciding with the festival of Diwali. Made on a budget of 40 million, the film was declared a success at the box office with a worldwide gross of 320 million. Apart from emerging as a major financial success, the film has become a cult film over the years due to its suspense, story, screenplay, soundtrack and performances of the cast. It was the first collaboration between Khan and Kajol, who went on to become one of India's most iconic on-screen couples. It helped establish Khan, Kajol, Shetty and Malik in Hindi films, and the soundtrack sold over 10million units, thus becoming the highest-selling album of the year.
At the 39th Filmfare Awards, Baazigar received 10 nominations, including Best Film, Best Supporting Actress and Best Female Debut (both for Shetty), and won 4 awards, including Best Actor (Khan) and Best Music Director (Malik).
Plot
Seema and Priya are the two daughters of affluent businessman Madan Chopra. Chopra competes in an auto race in Madras only to discover that another competitor, Vicky Malhotra, let him win on purpose so that he could meet him. Vicky impresses Chopra, and Priya develops feelings for him.
Seema's boyfriend Ajay convinces her to commit suicide with him, as her father is forcing her to marry someone else. She agrees, writing and signing a suicide note. Ajay tells her that he was merely testing her love for him and, proposing marriage, asks her to elope with him. Next day, while waiting for the marriage registrar's office to open, Ajay pushes Seema off the roof of the building, murdering her. He then discreetly mails her suicide note to her house. Chopra hastily orders the case closed to prevent further embarrassment should the suicide note be discovered. Suspecting that her sister didn't commit suicide, Priya secretly continues the investigation with the help of police inspector Karan Saxena, an old friend from college.
Ravi, a college friend of Seema who had a crush on her, tells Priya that he has a photo of Seema and Ajay together at a birthday party back at his hostel. Before Priya can reach Ravi to see the photo, Ajay finds out about this and murders Ravi. In their struggle, Ajay forces him to sign a suicide note, which makes it appear as though Ravi is Seema's murderer. Thus, the investigation is halted a second time. Chopra decides to get Vicky and Priya engaged. Ajay is revealed to be posing as "Vicky" to slowly win Chopra's confidence.
It is revealed through a flashback that Chopra had been a project manager in the company run by Ajay's late father Mr. Sharma, but when Sharma discovered that he was embezzling money, he had Chopra imprisoned for three years. After Madan completed his jail term, he asked for forgiveness, and Sharma's wife persuaded her husband to re-employ him. However, unbeknownst to anyone, Chopra had returned to exact revenge. One day, Sharma had to go on a business trip, so he handed the power of attorney to Chopra, who used the opportunity to become the company's owner. Sharma learned of this after returning, but it was too late. His family was ejected from their palatial home after Chopra took a loan on Sharma's name. Ajay witnessed Chopra eve-teasing his mother when she came to ask for their home back, and she subsequently cursed him to tragedy and helplessness later on in life. Heartbroken, Ajay vowed to make Chopra pay.
Back in the present, Seema's friend Anjali meets Priya and Ajay at a jewellery shop. She also discovers a photo of Seema and Ajay at her birthday party. 'Vicky' and Priya get engaged that evening. Anjali phones the Chopra residence during Ajay's engagement party to warn them that Ajay and 'Vicky' look the same, to which Babulal, head servant of the Chopra household, answers. As Babulal tries to inform Priya about this, Ajay intercepts the phone call, arrives at Anjali's place, and kills her, stuffing her body in a suitcase and throwing it in a river.
History repeats itself with Chopra handing over the power of attorney to 'Vicky' when he has to go on a business trip. However, a man and his dog find Anjali's body soon after on a beach, and when Priya and Inspector Karan hear about this, they realize that the murderer is still alive. Ajay decides to hasten his plans on realizing that Priya and Karan are hellbent on finding the killer, and that he has fallen in love with Priya. His plans hit a glitch when he and Priya run into the real Vicky Malhotra, Ajay's friend, whose identity he had taken, which makes Priya suspicious. After Chopra returns from his business trip, he is shocked to find that the company is run by the Sharma group. Ajay reveals the truth of his desire to seek revenge and kicks Chopra out.
Priya learns of Ajay's true identity from his friend, Vicky and rushes to Ajay's home in Panvel. She is shocked to see a marriage locket with photos of him with her sister. Ajay comes home, where she confronts him with his misdeeds. He then tells her his story and also tells her that due to the poverty her father forced his family into, his father died of a heart attack, and his younger sister died of illness. His mother went into a state of shock as a result of the loss of her husband and daughter, and in her mental instability, she is unable to recognize Ajay as her son. Priya realizes that it is her father who is at fault as Ajay introduces her to his mother. Chopra arrives at his home, shoots Ajay in the arm, and has his goons beat him up.
Soon his mother comes back to her senses, and when trying to intervene, Chopra injures her, angering Ajay. He fights the goons viciously and chases Chopra to the top of a wall at some ruins. He is about to kill Chopra when he is persuaded by police inspector Karan to have mercy for his mother's sake. Chopra takes the opportunity to impale him with a rod and laughs maniacally. Ajay laughs back and hugs Chopra, impaling him fatally with the same rod, and they both fall off the wall. He tells his mother that he has regained everything and collapses in her arms. Priya, Inspector Karan, and his mother watch despondently as Ajay succumbs to his injuries, finally he died in peace in his mother's arm.
Cast
Shah Rukh Khan as Ajay Sharma / Vicky Malhotra, Seema's boyfriend, Priya's fiancee.
Kajol as Priya Chopra, Vicky's fiancee
Siddharth as Inspector Karan Saxena
Shilpa Shetty as Seema Chopra, Ajay's girlfriend
Dalip Tahil as Madan Chopra, Priya and Seema's father
Johnny Lever as Babulal, Chopra's head servant
Raakhee as Shobha Sharma, Ajay's mother (special appearance)
Anant Mahadevan as Vishwanath Sharma, Ajay's father
Daboo Malik as Ravi Shukla
Dinesh Hingoo as Seth Bajodia
Adi Irani as Vicky Malhotra, Ajay's childhood friend
Resham Tipnis as Anjali Sinha
Amrut Patel as Seema's driver
Master Sumeet as young Ajay
Prithvi Zutshi as Suresh Desai
Manmauji as Taalia
Sharad Sankla as Charlie
Raju Srivastav as Charlie's friend
Harpal Singh as Cook Motu
Anu Malik as himself, the musician and host at the engagement (special appearance)
Vinod Rathod as himself, the singer at the engagement (special appearance)
Production
Development and Background
The film's premise is a subversion of a concept loosely inspired by a Hollywood film, A Kiss Before Dying (1991), which itself was based on a novel of the same name. While it borrows the basic premise, Baazigar tells a different, subversive story. While Matt Dillon's character in A Kiss Before Dying is a villain who murders for money, Baazigar subverts this, with Shahrukh Khan's character instead being a sympathetic anti-hero seeking vengeance for the brutal injustices done to his family.
In an interview Deepak Tijori revealed that, he first saw Hollywood movie Kiss Before Dying, he wanted to appear in it as lead, so showed it to Abbas-Mustan and later to producer Pahlaj Nihalani, both liked it and was ready to do the film, but after meeting Nihalani, Abbas-Mustan told that they want Shaharukh Khan in lead and alredy have other producers aboard, they told Tijori that they will definitely do a film with him in near future, but that never happened and he (Tijori) lost the part. Although Nihalani was ready to make the film with Tijori with other director, also told him to go-ahead and film the adaptation of the movie in foreign.
Casting
Several A-list Bollywood stars were approached for the lead role, but they turned it down, due to the character being a murderous, negative anti-hero. Akshay Kumar was the first choice to play the leading role though he turned it down due to the negativity of the role. Arbaaz Khan also turned down the role for the same reason but would go on to play a full fledged villain in Abbas-Mastan's next film Daraar (1996). Salman Khan and Anil Kapoor also turned down the role due it's negativity. Shah Rukh Khan eventually convinced producer Ratan Jain and Ganesh Jain that only he could pull off the role; Jain liked his confidence, and cast him in the role. However, his casting was criticized by trade pundits who incorrectly predicted that "a boy with cute dimples" would never be accepted as an anti-hero. Initially, Sridevi was supposed to play both the female roles (as twin sisters) as did Sean Young in the original film, but the director later realized that because to her massive popularity, the audience would not sympathize with the hero, if he killed the character played by Sridevi, hence they decided to cast two different actresses.
Principal photography
The filming began in March 1993 and ended in June of the year, first shot of the film was filmed in December 1992. The director filmed two ends, in one the police arrest Vicky Malhotra (Ajay Sharma) and in second, which eventually they kept in the film, where Ajay eliminate the villain.
Music
The music was composed by Anu Malik and won him the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. The song "Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein" earned singer Kumar Sanu his fourth consecutive Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer after Aashiqui, Saajan and Deewana. Other singers featured in the album are Asha Bhosle, Pankaj Udhas, Alka Yagnik, Vinod Rathod and Sonali Vajpai. Lyrics by Gauhar Kanpuri, Rani Mallik, Zafar Gorakhpuri, Zameer Kazmi, Nawab Arzoo & Dev Kohli. The soundtrack was released by Venus Music. Dr. Alban's song "It's My Life" was also featured.
A soundtrack was also released in Marathi. The film's soundtrack album sold 10million units, making it the best-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of 1993. The soundtrack "Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein" samples the African hit "Yeke Yeke" and others. The soundtrack was #67 on the list of "100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks of All Time", as compiled by Planet Bollywood
Track listing
Box office
Baazigar was a commercial success and the fourth highest-grossing Indian film of 1993, behind another Shah Rukh Khan-starrer, Darr. Baazigars collections in India were net and gross, equivalent to adjusted for inflation.
Accolades
Remakes
A Telugu remake, Vetagadu, was released in 1995, before a Tamil remake, Samrat, was released in 1997 and a Kannada remake, Nagarahavu, was released in 2002.
Influence
The later American films Almost Famous (2000) and Baywatch (2017) had strikingly similar posters to Baazigar. The posters of the two films feature Kate Hudson and Priyanka Chopra, respectively, wearing sunglasses that reflect other cast members, similar to the sunglasses Shah Rukh Khan wears on the poster for Baazigar.
References
External links
1990s Hindi-language films
1990s romantic thriller films
1993 crime thriller films
1993 films
Films about identity theft
Films based on American novels
Films based on thriller novels
Films based on works by Ira Levin
Films directed by Abbas–Mustan
Films scored by Anu Malik
Films set in Mumbai
Films shot in Mumbai
Films with screenplays by Akash Khurana
Films with screenplays by Robin Bhatt
Hindi films remade in other languages
Indian crime thriller films
Indian films about revenge
Indian remakes of American films
Indian romantic thriller films
Romantic crime films
Hindi-language crime thriller films
Hindi-language romantic thriller films
Serial killer films