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 American film A Kiss Before Dying, the film is about a young man seeking to avenge the fall of his family by taking to crime.

Baazigar was Khan's breakthrough role as the sole lead (his first as an antihero), 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 blockbuster 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. 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.

Cast

 * Shahrukh Khan as Ajay Sharma / Vicky Malhotra, Seema's partner, Priya's fiancee
 * Kajol as Priya Chopra, Vicky's fiancee
 * Shilpa Shetty as Seema Chopra, Ajay's girlfriend
 * Siddharth Ray as Inspector Karan Saxena
 * Dalip Tahil as Madan Chopra, Priya's and Seema's father
 * Johnny Lever as Babulal, Chopra's head servant.
 * Raakhee as Shobha Sharma, Ajay's mother
 * Anant Mahadevan as Vishwanath Sharma, Ajay's father( special appearance)
 * Daboo Malik as Ravi Shukla
 * Dinesh Hingoo as Seth Bajodia
 * Adi Irani as the real 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)

Development
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.

In an interview Deepak Tijori revealed that, he first saw Hollywood movie Kiss Before Dying and he wanted to appear in it as lead. 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 Shahrukh Khan in the lead and already 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 another director, he also told him to go-ahead and film the adaptation of the movie.

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 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. 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.

Filming
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 endings, in one the police arrest Vicky Malhotra (Ajay Sharma) and in second, which eventually they kept in the film, where Ajay eliminates 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

Box office
Baazigar was a commercial success and the fourth highest-grossing Indian film of 1993, behind another Shah Rukh Khan-starrer, Darr. Baazigar's collections in India were ₹15 crore net and ₹32 crore gross, equivalent to inr adjusted for inflation.

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. In Bengali remake, Prem was released in 2007.