Baazigar

Baazigar
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Abbas–Mustan
Written by	Robin Bhatt Akash Khurana Javed Siddiqui
Produced by	Ganesh Jain Champak Jain
Starring	Shah Rukh Khan Kajol Siddharth Shilpa Shetty Dalip Tahil Johnny Lever Rakhee Gulzar
Cinematography	Thomas A. Xavier
Edited by	Hussain A. Burmawala
Music by	Songs: Anu Malik Score: Shyam Surender
Production company	Venus Movies
Distributed by	Eros International
Release date	12 November 1993 (1993-11-12)
Running time	182 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹4 crore[1]
Box office	est.₹7.75 crore[2]

Baazigar (transl. Gambler) 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), Raakhee, Dalip Tahil, and Johnny Lever appear in supporting roles. Its soundtrack was composed by Anu Malik. The film follows a young man seeking to avenge the fall of his family by going on a murderous rampage.

The story is loosely based on Ira Levin's 1953 novel A Kiss Before Dying and its 1991 film adaptation of the same name.^[3] Baazigar proved to be Khan's breakthrough role as the sole lead (his first as an antihero), in addition to Kajol's first commercial success and Shetty's film debut.^[4][5]

Baazigar was released on 12 November 1993, coinciding with the festival of Diwali.^[6] Made on a budget of ₹40 million, the film was declared a blockbuster at the box office with a worldwide gross of ₹320 million, ranking as the fourth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year.^[7] 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.^[8] 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 10 million units, thus becoming the highest-selling album of the year.^[9]

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).^[10]

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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.

Ajay Sharma, Seema's boyfriend, 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. 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, 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 back. His family was ejected from their home after Chopra took a loan on Sharma's name. Ajay witnessed Chopra molesting his mother when she came to ask for their home back. 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. Ajay intercepts the phone call, arrives at Anjali's place, and kills her.

Chopra hands over the power of attorney to 'Vicky' when he has to go on a business trip. Priya runs 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 locket with photos of him and her sister together. Ajay arrives and she confronts him. He then tells her how 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. She is unable to recognize Ajay as her son. Chopra arrives at his home, shoots Ajay in the arm, and has his goons beat him up.

Chopra injures his mother, angering Ajay. He fights the goons viciously. He is about to kill Chopra but Chopra takes the opportunity to impale him with a rod. Ajay also impales Chopra 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 as Ajay succumbs to his injuries, dying in peace in his mother's arms.

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 Shah Rukh Khan's character instead being a sympathetic anti-hero seeking vengeance for the brutal injustices done to his family.^[11]

In an interview, Deepak Tijori revealed that when he first saw A Kiss Before Dying, he wanted to appear as the lead in the Hindi adaptation of the film. So he showed it to Abbas-Mustan and later to producer Pahlaj Nihalani. They liked it and was ready to do the film, but after meeting Nihalani, Abbas-Mustan told that they want Shah Rukh Khan in the lead and already have other producers aboard. They told Tijori that they will definitely do a film with him in the near future, but that never happened and he (Tijori) lost the part. Although Nihalani was ready to make the film with Tijori with another director, he also told him to go-ahead and film the adaptation of the film.^[12][13]

Several A-list Bollywood stars were approached for the lead role, but they turned it down, due to the character being a murderous antihero. 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 to its 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.^[11]

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.^[14]

The filming began December 1992 and lasted till June 1993. The director filmed two endings, the first where the police arrest Vicky Malhotra (Ajay Sharma) and the second, which eventually they kept in the film, where Ajay eliminates the villain.^[15]

The music was composed by Anu Malik and won him the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.^[16] 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.^[17] Sanu and Vinod Rathod supplied vocals for Khan as "Vicky" and Ajay, respectively. Other singers featured in the album are Asha Bhosle, Pankaj Udhas, Alka Yagnik, and Sonali Vajpai. The lyrics were written by Gauhar Kanpuri, Rani Mallik, Zafar Gorakhpuri, Zameer Kazmi, Nawab Arzoo & Dev Kohli.^[18] The soundtrack was released by Venus Music.^[19] Dr. Alban's song "It's My Life" is also featured in the film.

A soundtrack was also released in Marathi. The film's soundtrack album sold 10 million units,^[9] making it the best-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of 1993.^[20] The soundtrack was ranked #67 on the list of "100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks of All Time", as compiled by Planet Bollywood.

Baazigar emerged a major commercial success at the box-office, ranking as the fourth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year, behind another Shah Rukh Khan-starrer, Darr.^[21] Baazigar's collections in India were ₹15 crore net and ₹32 crore gross,^[21] equivalent to ₹571 crore (US$68 million) adjusted for inflation.^[22]

A Telugu remake, Vetagadu, released in 1995,^[23] followed by a Tamil remake, Samrat, which released in 1997 and a Kannada remake, Nagarahavu, which released in 2002.^[24] The Bengali remake, Prem was released in 2007.

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• Baazigar at IMDb