Baazigar
1993 film directed by Abbas–Mustan
title: "Baazigar" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1990s-hindi-language-films", "1993-indian-films", "1990s-erotic-thriller-films", "1990s-pregnancy-films", "1993-psychological-thriller-films", "1990s-romantic-thriller-films", "1993-crime-thriller-films", "1993-films", "films-about-businesspeople", "films-about-identity-theft", "films-based-on-american-novels", "films-based-on-crime-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-1993", "films-set-in-chennai", "films-set-in-mumbai", "films-set-in-the-1990s", "films-shot-in-chennai", "films-shot-in-madh-fort", "films-shot-in-mumbai", "films-with-screenplays-by-akash-khurana", "films-with-screenplays-by-robin-bhatt", "hindi-films-remade-in-other-languages", "hindi-language-crime-thriller-films", "hindi-language-romantic-thriller-films", "indian-auto-racing-films", "indian-business-films", "indian-crime-thriller-films", "indian-erotic-thriller-films", "indian-films-about-revenge", "indian-neo-noir-films", "indian-pregnancy-films", "indian-psychological-thriller-films", "indian-remakes-of-american-films", "indian-romantic-thriller-films", "indian-serial-killer-films", "indian-thriller-films", "romantic-crime-films", "unofficial-film-adaptations", "films-based-on-adaptations", "hindi-remakes-of-english-films", "films-about-psychopaths-and-sociopaths"] description: "1993 film directed by Abbas–Mustan" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baazigar" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary 1993 film directed by Abbas–Mustan ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox film"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Baazigar |
| image | Baazigar_1993.jpg |
| caption | Theatrical release poster |
| director | Abbas–Mustan |
| producer | Ganesh Jain |
| Champak Jain | |
| writer | Robin Bhatt |
| Akash Khurana | |
| Javed Siddiqui | |
| starring | Shah Rukh Khan |
| Kajol | |
| Shilpa Shetty | |
| Dalip Tahil | |
| Raakhee | |
| Johnny Lever | |
| music | Songs: |
| Anu Malik | |
| Score: | |
| Shyam Surender | |
| cinematography | Thomas A. Xavier |
| editing | Hussain A. Burmawala |
| studio | Venus Movies |
| distributor | Eros International |
| released | |
| runtime | 182 minutes |
| country | India |
| language | Hindi |
| budget | 3 crore |
| gross | 15 crore |
| :: |
| name = Baazigar | image = Baazigar_1993.jpg | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = Abbas–Mustan | based_on = | producer = Ganesh Jain Champak Jain | writer = Robin Bhatt Akash Khurana Javed Siddiqui | starring = Shah Rukh Khan Kajol Shilpa Shetty Dalip Tahil Raakhee Johnny Lever | music = Songs: Anu Malik Score: Shyam Surender | cinematography = Thomas A. Xavier | editing = Hussain A. Burmawala | studio = Venus Movies | distributor = Eros International | released = | runtime = 182 minutes | country = India | language = Hindi | budget = 3 crore | gross = 15 crore
Baazigar () is a 1993 Indian Hindi-language crime-thriller directed by Abbas–Mustan and produced by Venus Movies. It stars Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Shilpa Shetty, Dalip Tahil and Raakhee. Its soundtrack was composed by Anu Malik. The film follows a young man (played by Khan) seeking to avenge the fall of his family by going on a murderous rampage.
The movie is loosely based on the 1991 film A Kiss Before Dying which was adapted from Ira Levin's 1953 novel of same name. 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.
Baazigar was released on 12 November 1993, coinciding with the festival of Diwali. Made on a budget of 30 million, the film emerged victorious at the box office with a worldwide gross of 150 million, ranking as the fourth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year. Additionally, 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, and 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
Madan Chopra, a wealthy businessman, has two daughters, Seema and Priya. During a car race in Madras, Chopra meets Vicky Malhotra, a seemingly charming young man who allows him to win the race to earn his trust. Chopra becomes impressed by Vicky, and Priya gradually falls in love with him. However, Vicky is revealed to be Ajay Sharma, who has assumed a false identity to take revenge on Chopra.
Seema, who is in a secret relationship with Ajay, faces pressure from her father to marry someone else. Ajay tricks her into writing a suicide note and later pushes her off a building, staging her death as a suicide. To avoid a scandal, Chopra quickly closes the case. Suspicious of her sister’s death, Priya begins investigating with the help of Inspector Karan Saxena, an old college friend.
Her investigation leads to Seema’s friend Ravi who tells Priya that he took a photograph of Seema and Ajay together at a party. Before Priya can see it, Ajay intervenes and forces Ravi to write a suicide note, framing him as Seema's murderer and kills him by hanging him while staging his death as a suicide. Meanwhile, Chopra plans Priya’s engagement to Vicky, still unaware of his true identity.
Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Chopra once worked for Ajay’s father, Vishwanath Sharma. When Sharma caught him embezzling company funds, Chopra was jailed. Upon his release, Chopra pretended to repent but betrayed Sharma when he gave Madan power of attorney, taking over his business and leaving the Sharma family destitute. This led to Sharma’s death from a heart attack, the death of Ajay’s baby sister, and his mother Shobna’s mental breakdown. Witnessing Chopra's cruelty, Ajay vowed to destroy him and only goal in life was to see the destruction of Chopra.
During Priya and Vicky’s engagement, Seema’s college friend Anjali calls the house and Ajay answers the phone. She mentions having seen Seema with a man who resembles Ajay at her birthday party and possessing a photograph of them together, alarming him. Realizing that she could expose his true identity, Ajay visits the hotel where Anjali works. He kills her and eats the photo while concealing her body in a suitcase, which he later disposes of in a river. The next day, Inspector Karan informs Priya that Anjali has gone missing and asks whether any phone call was received from her that day, planting the first seeds of Priya’s suspicion toward Ajay.
Back in the present, Priya meets the real Vicky Malhotra and begins to suspect Ajay. She discovers a locket with photos of Ajay and Seema, confirming her suspicions and confronts Ajay who reveals Chopra's theft of his family's wealth to a shocked Priya who feels sympathy for him despite his crimes. Chopra, becomes aware of Ajay’s identity after giving him power of attorney which Ajay uses to steal his company. Chopra confronts him at his home with goons. A brutal fight ensues, during which Chopra's goons badly beat Ajay and Madan hits Shobha, who regains her sanity upon hearing Madan's voice. In the end, Ajay fights back but Chopra fatally impales Ajay with a rod, but Ajay retaliates, fatally wounding Chopra who dies immediately. A wounded Ajay struggles back to his mother, promising her he has reclaimed everything that was meant to be their's. Now only wanting to rest peacefully in his mothers arms, a despondent Priya and Karan watch as Ajay dies in his mothers arms, finally at peace.
Cast
- Shahrukh Khan as Ajay Sharma / fake Vicky Malhotra
- Kajol as Priya Chopra, Seema's elder sister.
- Shilpa Shetty as Seema Chopra, Priya's younger sister.
- Dalip Tahil as Madan Chopra, Priya and Seema's father.
- Raakhee as Shobha Sharma, Ajay's mother. (special appearance)
- Siddharth Ray as Inspector Karan Saxena
- Johnny Lever as Babulal
- Anant Mahadevan as Vishwanath Sharma, Ajay's father.
- Daboo Malik as Ravi Shukla
- Dinesh Hingoo as Bajoria Seth
- Adi Irani as the real Vicky Malhotra
- Kiku Sharda as Rocco
- Resham Tipnis as Anjali Sinha, Seema's friend.
- Amrut Patel as Seema's driver
- 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)
- Sumeet Pathak as young Ajay
Production
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 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.
Casting
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.
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. Madhuri Dixit was then offered the role of Seema, but she rejected. Juhi Chawla was then approached for the same role, but she rejected it too.
Filming
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.
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. The song is based on the Dean Martin song "The Man Who Plays the Mandolin", itself based on the Italian song "Guaglione". 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. The soundtrack was released by Venus Music. 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 10million units, making it the best-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of 1993. The soundtrack was ranked #67 on the list of "100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks of All Time", as compiled by Planet Bollywood.
| name = Baazigar | type = soundtrack | artist = Anu Malik | cover = | alt = | released = 2 April 1993 | recorded = | venue = | studio = | genre = Film soundtrack | length = | label = Venus Music | producer = | prev_title = Phool Aur Angaar | prev_year = 1993 | next_title = The Gentleman | next_year = 1994
Track listing
| extra_column = Singer(s) | title1 = Baazigar O Baazigar | lyrics1 = Nawab Arzoo | extra1 = Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik | length1 = 7:31| | title2 = Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein | lyrics2 = Dev Kohli | extra2 = Kumar Sanu, Anu Malik | length2 = 7:53| | title3 = Kitabein Bahut Si | lyrics3 = Zafar Gorakhpuri | extra3 = Asha Bhosle, Vinod Rathod | length3 = 6:28| | title4 = Chhupana Bhi Nahi Aata | lyrics4 = Rani Malik | extra4 = Vinod Rathod | length4 = 7:01| | title5 = Chhupana Bhi Nahi Aata | lyrics5 = Rani Malik | extra5 = Pankaj Udhas | length5 = 5:31| | title6 = Samajh Kar Chand Jis Ko (Not in film) | lyrics6 = Zameer Kazmi | extra6 = Vinod Rathod, Alka Yagnik | length6 = 8:53| | title7 = Aye Mere Humsafar | lyrics7 = Gauhar Kanpuri | extra7 = Vinod Rathod, Alka Yagnik | length7 = 7:29| | title8 = Tere Chehre Pe (Not in film) | lyrics8 = Rani Malik | extra8 = Kumar Sanu, Sonali Vajpai | length8 = 7:09| | total_length = 57:51
Box office
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. Baazigars collections in India were net and gross,
Accolades
::data[format=table]
| Award | Category | Recipients and nominees | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 39th Filmfare Awards | Best Actor | Shah Rukh Khan | rowspan="4" |
| Best Music Director | Anu Malik | ||
| Best Male Playback Singer | Kumar Sanu for "Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein" | ||
| Best Screenplay | Robin Bhatt, Javed Siddiqui, Akash Khurana | ||
| Best Supporting Actress | Shilpa Shetty | rowspan="6" | |
| Best Female Debut | |||
| Best Comedian | Johnny Lever | ||
| Best Lyricist | Dev Kohli for "Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein" | ||
| Best Male Playback Singer | Kumar Sanu for "Baazigar, O Baazigar" | ||
| Best Female Playback Singer | Alka Yagnik for "Baazigar, O Baazigar" | ||
| :: |
Remakes
Baazigar is a remake of the film A Kiss Before Dying (1956).
A Telugu remake, Vetagadu, released in 1995, followed by a Tamil remake, Samrat, which released in 1997 and a Kannada remake, Nagarahavu, which released in 2002. The Bengali remake, Prem was released in 2007.
References
References
- "Not Shah Rukh Khan, but this star kid was Abbas-Mustan's first choice for Baazigar".
- (12 November 1993). "Player Box Office".
- M.K. Raghavendra. (15 December 2014). "Seduced by the Familiar: Narration and Meaning in Indian Popular Cinema". OUP India.
- (13 June 2015). "From 'Baazigar' to 'Dilwale' - A look at SRK and Kajol's on-screen magic". The Express Tribune.
- Taliculam, Sharmila. (4 April 1997). "Rediff On The Net, Movies: An interview with Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty". Rediff.com.
- (22 October 2014). "Baazigar to Krrish 3: Diwali hits, misses and clashes from Bollywood". Firstpost.
- (29 February 2016). "Fan trailer tonight: 5 times Shah Rukh Khan wowed us with his 'dark side'". Daily News & Analysis.
- (30 April 1994). "What the stars don't foretell".
- (30 May 2009). "Shah Rukh Khan Filmfare Awards 1992 - 2009". YouTube.
- Iyer, Meena. (14 July 2014). "Baazigar: The rise and fall of Shah Rukh, Kajol and Shilpa Shetty". The Times of India.
- "Dipak Tijori, how lost Bazigar.".
- (2023-02-25). "Deepak Tijori reveals he had told Abbas-Mustan about 'A Kiss Before Dying' but they went behind his back and offered 'Baazigar' to Shah Rukh Khan". The Times of India.
- "Roles Rejected by Sridevi".
- "6 Blockbusters Madhuri Dixit Rejected: Baazigar To Ishq".
- (2024-03-21). "When Abbas-Mustan were told to cast Sridevi in double role with Shah Rukh in Baazigar: ‘When the first girl dies, we’ll still have Sridevi’".
- (11 November 2018). "'Baazigar' was shot with two endings, reveals Abbas-Mustan". [[Business Standard]].
- (15 November 1994). "I don't want other music directors to catch up with me: Anu Malik". India Today.
- Press Trust of India. (13 August 2012). "Melody will return to Bollywood songs: Kumar Sanu". Business Standard.
- PTI. "Kajol marks 30 years of 'Baazigar'".
- Vijayakar, Rajiv. (4 November 2015). "Anu Malik and Shah Rukh Khan: Sharing more than birthdays". Bollywoodhungama.com.
- (31 October 1994). "Bollywood hinges on Hindi film music industry, fans soak up wacky new sounds". [[India Today]].
- "Music Hits 1990-1999 (Figures in Units)".
- "Box Office 1993". Boxofficeindia.com.
- "Darr - Movie (1993 inflation rate)".
- "Telugu Cinema Etc - Idlebrain.com".
- Upadhyaya, Prakash. (14 October 2016). "Nagarahavu aka Shivanagam movie review: Live audience response".
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