30th anniversary of Baazigar
It’s the 30th anniversary of Baazigar, the legendary movie starring Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, and Shilpa Shetty. Kajol celebrated the occasion by sharing a tweet on her X handle (formerly Twitter) that was full of fond recollections and expressions of thanks. The actress emphasized the importance of the movie as a culmination of several “firsts” in her career, including her first interactions with Anu Malik, Shah Rukh Khan, and Saroj Khan.
Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, and Shilpa Shetty (in her feature debut), Abbas Mustan’s 1993 thriller Baazigar was a big hit that year and is still loved by viewers today for its original plot and catchy tunes. Today, Baazigar celebrated 30 years since its debut.
In an post, Kajol talked about how she began the movie when she was 17 and appreciated the opulent treatment she got from Mustan and Abbas. The actress spoke warmly of her co-stars, including Johnny Lever, Shilpa Shetty, and Anu Malik, highlighting the many happy moments and nonstop laughter that occurred during the filming of Baazigar.
Kajol’s social media tribute to Baazigar’s lasting influence on her career and the memories made during its production is a heartfelt way to honor the film’s incredible 30-year anniversary. In spite of Indian cinema’s constant change, the cult classic has endured and will always have a particular place in the hearts of its devotees. In terms of the Baazigar cast and crew, Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, and Shilpa Shetty were visible in the lead parts. The renowned director team of Abbas and Mastan, known for their work on the Khiladi, Badshah, and Race film series, helmed this movie.
This year was the 1993 best-selling Bollywood soundtrack album, featuring numerous hit songs. Baazigar’s soundtrack album sold a total of one crore copies. Additionally, the popular song from this movie, Yeah Kali Kali Aaankhen, was influenced by the African hit song Yaki Yaki, which is now considered a Bollywood cult classic.
When discussing the top 5 highest-grossing Bollywood films of 1993, the first movie on the list is Aankhen, an all-time blockbuster that took in 14 crore rupees at the box office. The second movie, Khalnaayak, was an all-time blockbuster that brought in 14 crore 50 lakh rupees. The third movie, Darr, was a blockbuster that brought in 10 crore and 75 lakh rupees. Baazigar ranked fourth, and Tiranga, a blockbuster that brought in 6 crore and 75 lakh rupees, ranked fifth.Apart from this, if we talk about the awards received by Baazigar, then for this film, Shahrukh Khan was awarded the Best Actor, Kumar Sanu was awarded the Best Male Playback Singer for Kali Kali Aankhen, Anu Malik was awarded the Best Music Director and Javed Siddiqui along with Robin Bhatt and Akash Khurrana was awarded the Best Screenplay of the film.
So let’s know some interesting and amazing unknown facts about Baazigar.
Fact No. 1 Many actors were approached for Shahrukh Khan’s role in Baazigar. First of all, Akshay Kumar was in it. But Akshay Kumar did not want to play a negative character, because of which he rejected this film.
Fact No. 2 For the lead roles in this film, Anil Kapoor, Arbaaz Khan, and Armaan Kohli were also approached. But all of them rejected this role because of the negativity of it. But later, when this film proved to be a big hit, following the trend of the anti-hero set by Baazigar in 1996, Arbaaz Khan also appeared in the film Daraar, playing a full-fledged negative role.
Fact No. 3 Abbas and Mastan also had approached Salman Khan for the lead role in this film. Salman’s father Salim khan wanted mother character in the film but actually, by that time, there was no character like Rakhi Gulzar in the script of Baazigar. Both Abbas and Mastan were not convinced by Salim Khan’s idea of having mother character hence, Salman Khan rejected this role. But at the end, when Baazigar was being made with Shahrukh, the character of Rakhi Gulzar was also added to it and because of which the audience accepted the negative character of Shahrukh, and in the end, when Shahrukh’s character dies in his mother’s arms, the audience forgives him for his crimes.
Fact No.4 Baazigar was a milestone in Shahrukh’s career, which gave him stardom along with establishing him in Bollywood. But to get the lead role in this movie, Shah Rukh convinced Baazigar producer Ratan Jain by saying that only he could pull off this role and Ratan Jain liked Shahrukh’s confidence, after which he was casted for the lead role. Although critics criticized Shahrukh’s casting and said that a boy will never be accepted as an anti-hero with cute dimples, but after the film’s release, Shahrukh’s performance proved them wrong.
Fact No. 5 In this film, for roles like Kajol and Shilpa Shetty, Abbas Mastan first considered Sridevi in double roles. But later, when Abbas and Mastan felt that if the character of Shahrukh in the film killed a well-established actress like Sridevi, then the audience would start hating the character of Shahrukh, and the entire film would be seen as a pure villain. This way, the character of Shahrukh cannot create sympathy in the hearts of the audience. And that’s why the filmmakers dropped the idea of casting Sridevi here. After which, Aysha Jhulka was approached for the role of Kajol, and Madhuri Dixit, Akruti Nagpal, and Juhi Chawla were approached for the role of Shilpa Shetty. But all of them rejected this film for some reasons, which eventually reached Kajol and Shilpa Shetty.
Fact No. 6 For the lead role of Baazigar, Makers had approached Ajay Devgan, but he thought of declining this role so that Makers would approach him again with more money. But that did not happen, and Makers cast Shahrukh Khan for the lead role.
Fact No. 7 Siddharth Rey, who was seen in the role of the police inspector in this film, unfortunately died in 2004 due to a heart attack. Siddharth Rey was also the grandson of Santaram, who was an Indian legendary filmmaker.
Fact No. 8 In this film, Johnny Lever himself improvised almost all jokes and dialogues, and he didn’t give any script for his dialogues. Johnny Lever’s role was connected to the plot of this film but his comic timing lightens the tension and serious mood of the audience.
Fact No. 9 Shahrukh Khan was given the Filmfare Award for the best actor. When Shah Rukh Khan did not see Abbas or Mastan at the award function or at the award party at night he went to the Bhindi Bazar area of Mumbai to meet Abbas and Mastan.
Fact No. 10 With the success of Baazigar, along with Shahrukh Khan, Kajol and Silpa Shetty also became established actresses in Bollywood. An interesting fact related to them is that at the time of the release of this film, Kajol and Silpa Shetty were both teenagers, where Kajol was 18 years old and Silpa Shetty was 17 years old. Although in real life, Kajol is older than Silpa Shetty, in the film, Silpa Shetty’s character is shown in the role of the elder sister. Fact No.
Fact No. 11 The contact lens used by Shah Rukh Khan in the game was inspired by the 1982 movie Satte Pe Satta, in which Amitabh Bachchan wore a contact lens.Also, in the scenes in which Shah Rukh Khan wore a contact lens, his blue eyes were actually contact lenses.
Fact No. 12 Shah Rukh himself improvised many scenes of Baazigar. one scene of the film in which Shahrukh’s contact lens falls into the boss’s basin, and Shahrukh looks for it like crazy. Actually, the way he improvised this scene and created tension in it was outstanding. Apart from this, there is one scene in the film in which Shahrukh kills Seema’s friend Anjali and then eats the photographs. Actually, it was Shahrukh’s idea to eat them instead of throwing photographs, which gave this scene a realistic touch.
Fact No. 13 Baazigar’s story is loosely inspired by the Hollywood film adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel A Kiss Before Dying, which was released in 1991 with the same name. However, the Hollywood film follows the basic story of the A Kiss Before Dying era Levin novel, in which the lead character is a pure villain who murders for money, but plays a different story in which the lead character is shown as an anti-hero who takes revenge for the injustice that he did to his family.
Fact No. 14 It was Shahrukh Khan and Kajol’s first film together, which later turned out to be the best on-screen couple.
