Shocking Bollywood Disaster: How India

India’s ‘biggest flop film of 1997’ is still recalled by the ardent fans of Bollywood, especially when the film boasted an extraordinary ensemble of actors, whose names alone could easily enthrall fans worldwide. This film’s concept seemed a fairytale come true, with an ensemble of iconic main characters performing enthralling stunts, heartwarming dances, romantic moments, coupled with plentiful humor – a perfect charm packed deal that would attract die-hard cinema aficionados and earn filmmakers thousands of lakhs in box office collections, ultimately positioning in a record-breaking slot.

The film was offered to one of India’s most prominent leading men, but the usually-reliable thespian rejected the offer for incomprehensible reasons, without ascertaining what an opportunity he was meant to forego. Conversely, an actor decided to commit and take up the key lead role of a beautiful person who would act, but this actor did precisely that in spite of his incredible acumen – for hours on the screen, all this ‘fine young actor’ did in the first half, was remain quiet, devoid of delivering any single dialogue as dictated by the script of the film penned by a great screenwriter of this particular era, to underscore his enigmatic character. These were some of the risks being toyed around in the film.

The introduction of a romantic lead, a beautiful female lead character (e.g. Madhuri Dixit, one of the leading film heroines of that era), was considered a major pivot in the film’s narrative, which unfortunately failed to rouse the necessary intrigue in the audience. Audiences couldn’t connect to the romantic part as expected. While the industry’s big heavyweights, even the stalwarts including Shah Rukh Khan and many others were definitely revered for transforming their assigned characters perfectly in different films, weren’t given a chance, did appear in this lead lady’s film in short guest appearances (possibly, to lend support). What they portrayed might have suited that film to some degree but did absolutely little to lift this, which only ended up as merely an unmitigated disaster in the grand Indian silver screen – this is unfortunate and something tragic.

This film left its director sorrowful and dismayed. As it ended in absolutely no earnings, a monumental failure with countless foreboding dreams dissolving in thin air as the curtains closed on an unusually ordinary movie storyline – the director reportedly shed tears, signifying despair on witnessing the complete washout of his cherished aspirations that had gone all in vain – this tells us about yet another sorrowfully dismaying instance with an excruciating climax that Bollywood witnessed with no respite. Bollywood movies are like an everyday food item that we keep running on years in and out – of course these movies become an all-time favorite that take you to a nostalgic journey of our childhood.