Real and Imagined Audiences: "Lagaan" and the Hindi Film after the 1990s

Author(s): Rachel Dwyer

Source: Etnofoor, Vol. 15, No. 1/2, SCREENS (2002), pp. 177-193
Published by: Stichting Etnofoor
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Real and
Imagined
Audiences:
Lagaan
and the Hindi Film after the 1990s
Rachel
Dwyer,
SOAS
ABSTRACT The Hindi film of the 1990s marked the dominance of the musical romance:
a
heightened
form of
glamour
and
consumption,
where 'Indian values' were tested across the
transnational Indian
family.
However,
two of 200l's
biggest
hits were not romances but historical
films about
subalterns,
which few
expected
to find audiences. Indian film
producers frequently
talk about
adjusting
their films for box office
success,
adding
elements intended to
please
their
audiences,
imagined
without audience
ethnography
and extensive market research. This
paper
focuses on
Lagaan,
which seemed to break with all norms of an
imagined
audience, yet
was a
great
hit in India and
overseas,
acclaimed
critically
in India and nominated for an 'Oscar' in 2002. It
looks at how the film was
produced,
its
marketing
and its
reception, raising
issues of the
relationship
between the
producers
and the audiences in
India,
the
diaspora
and the
west,
in the context of
genre.
The Hindi film of the 1990s marked the dominance of the musical
romance,
typified
by
the
style
of Yash
Raj
Films: a
heightened
form of
glamour
and
consumption,
where
'Indian values' were tested across the transnational Indian
family. Although
the
highest
grossing
film of
2001,
Kabhi khushi kabhie
gham/Sometimes happiness,
sometimes sorrow
(K3G\
dir. Karan
Johar, 2001),
was in this
style,
all the box-office
pundits
were taken
by surprise
when two of the
year's biggest
hits were not romances but historical films
about subalterns
-
Lagaan/Once
upon
a time in India
(dir.
Ashutosh
Gowariker, 2001)
and Gadar
-
ekprem
katha/Turmoil
-
a love
story (dir.
Anil
Sharma, 2001). Among
those
who
predict
audience reactions to
films,
few
thought
that these films would find audiences.
Indian film
producers frequently
talk about
adjusting
their films for box office
success,
adding
elements intended to
please
their
imagined
audiences. Given the lack of audience
ethnography
and extensive market
research,
this audience is
imagined
with
varying degrees
of
accuracy
reflected in box office returns. This
paper
focuses on
Lagaan,
which seemed
to break with all norms of an
imagined
audience
yet
was a
great
hit in India and
overseas,
acclaimed
critically
in India and nominated for an 'Oscar' in 2002. It looks at how the
film
producers
decided to make the
film,
its
marketing
and its
reception, raising
issues of
the
relationship
between the
producers
and the audiences in
India,
the
diaspora
and the
west,
in the context of
genre.
ETNOFOOR, XV(l/2) 2002, pp.
177-193 177
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The
producers'
search for audiences for the Hindi film
Although
the Hindi film is often
disparaged
as
'commercial',
no
producer
can make a film
without a
thought
to the
possible
audiences. A film
simply
has to make
money
but
rarely
does,
as is true of all forms of
popular
culture.
During
the
preproduction
of a
film,
there
are
frequent
discussions aimed at
reducing
this
gamble,
which centre on the audience.
The
producer
is
all-powerful
in Hindi
cinema,
so it is not
surprising
that
many
of the most
successful film directors
produce
their own films in order to avoid the
pressures
to
adjust
the
film to the
producers' imagined
audiences. At various
stages
of film
making
the financiers
may
ask
producers,
or
producers may
ask directors to add tried and tested elements that
are felt to
appeal
to certain sections of the audience. The most
frequent examples
of such
features are to attract the Muslim audience such as a
song drawing
on 'Muslim' musical
genres,
such as the
ghazal
or
qawwali,
or the
appearance
of a
'good
Muslim'
or to show
the Hindu characters
demonstrating respect
for Islam. Other elements could be
regarded
as
generic requirements
as one
popular
film tends to lead to
another,
following
trends in
narrative
style, using
box office
stars,
successful music
directors,
exotic locations and
so
on. While these elements are often
disparaged
as
being
'formulaic',
they
are
actually part
of the formation of
generic categories among
the
producers
and the
audience,
the Yash
Raj style
mentioned above
being
one of the most famous recent
examples.1
The cinema audience in India has
always
been
segmented (Dwyer
and Patel
2002)
and
the
producers
and the critics take this into consideration in their
predictions
of box office
potential.
One absolute divide in Indian cinema is between the 'art' and the 'commercial'
(mainstream)
cinema
(although
recent
years suggest
there
may
be a
slight blurring
of
boundaries),
another is the market for non-Hindi
cinema,
which tend to be
only
in the
area where the
language
is dominant. This
paper
looks
only
at mainstream Hindi
cinema,
where most of these
generic
divisions can be traced back to the
early
cinema. Genres
found different audiences with action films most
popular
with the lower
classes,
while
'social
problem'
films
appealed
to the
upper classes;
Tslamicate' themes found favour with
Muslim audiences. Since the
1950s,
Hindi cinema has not had
strong generic categories,
with films
tending
to fall into the omnibus 'social'
film,
often called masala 'mixed and
spicy', containing
romance, action,
dancing
and so on.
This
mixing
of
genres
is
thought
to
be driven
by
the need to reach a
maximum audience rather than
having
a narrow
appeal
to
only
one
segment. Nevertheless,
certain themes are more
popular
with
regional
audiences
within the area where the Hindi film dominates
-
the northern Indian audience
prefers
action and
comedy
while the
metropolitan
audience
may accept
more
controversial
films,
a
division
popularly
attributed to class. Others are to do with local
sensibilities;
so a
gangster
film set in
Bombay may
run
well there but is
unlikely
to find a
national audience. In recent
years,
some
producers
have been
willing
to take
risks,
in
particular
with
gangster
films but
these have remained
popular only
within a
restricted audience while the most successful
films remain are
found
among
the
social,
films said to
espouse
HFV
(Hindu
family values).
The 1990s saw
the audience for the Hindi film
returning
to the cinema halls
alongside
the
growth
of new
markets
(Dwyer 2000b).
The Indian audience was no
longer
a
largely
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male,
working
class
audience,
but included the 'new middle classes' of India
(Dwyer
2000a),
who were avid consumers of a new
style
-
or even
genre
-
of cinema
typified by
the films of Yash
Chopra
and his
company,
Yash
Raj
Films
(Dwyer 2002a).
Other directors
and
production
houses made films in this
style
or
genre,
which celebrated a
consumerist,
transnational
society,
where
love, romance,
fashion and fun were the
goals
of the
young
wealthy
Indians
who,
even if resident outside
India,
demonstrated to their
parents
true
Indian,
family
values
(Dwyer
2000b).
Some of these films were the
biggest
box office
successes in the
history
of Indian
cinema,
and
budgets
for films increased
enormously
during
this time.
One of the
major changes during
the 1990s was the
increasing importance
of the overseas
market. Hindi films have been
popular
in Asia and Africa and the former Soviet Union
since
early days,
but achieved
significant
markets in
Europe
and North America
only
with
the
growth
of the
population
of South Asian descent in those countries. With the
growth
of cinema halls in these countries
screening
Hindi films in the
1990s,
a
significant
market
emerged. Although
this audience is
relatively
small,
the
great
differential in
price
of theatre
tickets
(up
to ten times more in the
west)
and the fact that this revenue is also in
highly
desirable
foreign exchange,
made it valuable to the
producers.
The
big budget
romantic
films were the first to earn more in the Indian
diaspora,
in
particular
that in the UK and the
USA,
than
they
did in
any
one of the seven Indian distribution circuits. Yash
Raj
Films,
quick
to realise the
importance
of this
market,
opened
distribution offices in the UK and
the USA in the late
1990s,
which handle their films and some films of a similar
style,
such
as those of Karan Johar that have been the
largest grossing
films in this market to date.
The most
popular
of these films included: Dilwale
dulhaniya
le
jayenge/The
braveheart
will take the bride
(dir. Aditya Chopra, 1995),
Dil to
pagal
hai/Thc heart is
crazy (dir.
Yash
Chopra,
1997)
and Kuch kuch hota
/^//Something happens
(dir.
Karan
Johar, 1998).
However,
by
2000,
as this
type
of film became the norm it seemed to be
losing popularity,
with the
exception
of Kaho na
pyaar
/zai/Won't
you say
that it's love
(dir.
Rakesh
Roshan,
2000),
which
was most famous for
creating
a new
superstar,
Hrithik Roshan. 2001 's K3G
took the features of the 90s' film almost to the level of
pastiche
-
the locations are ever
more exotic and
unjustified,
with characters in
stately
homes and
palaces,
whose interiors
are
yet
more
lavish,
having
fleets of
private helicopters
as well as the usual
top
of the
range
sports
cars. Other
genres
that are
popular
in
India,
such as the action
film,
the nationalist
film and the crime film did not do well in the
diasporic
market
during
this
decade,
where
only
the romantic
genre
has been so successful. Even films that
seem on the
fringes
of
this 1990s
genre,
which have
appealed only
to the
metropolitan
audience in
India, have,
surprisingly,
not been marketed well in the UK
(for example
Dil chahta hai/The heart
loves
(dir.
Farhan
Akhtar, 2001)
whose three heroes
living stylishly
in millionaire
style,
but included a new sense of
ennui,
existential confusion and
relationship
dilemmas).
Other
films
marginal
to the romantic
genre, by
contrast,
have done well in the UK while not
doing
well in
India,
such
as Mani Ratnam's Dil se/From the heart.
As the overseas market became
increasingly important,
the
producers
and distributors
realised that
they
were not
breaking
into the
European
and American mainstream market
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where the
possibility
of
really large money
lies. While it is well known that India
produces
more films than
any
other
country,
its
economy
is
relatively
small,
an
illustration
being
that the
budgets
of Hindi films are
usually
less than that of a
Hollywood
trailer. The
major
market for
expansion
is
clearly
the
west,
where there are
the added attractions of
prestige
and esteem as most Hindi filmmakers are avid
Hollywood
fans.
Producers
perceived
a
variety
of obstacles in
attracting
western audiences. The first was
that their films were
technologically
backward,
but this
changed rapidly during
the 1990s
although many
films still dub
dialogues
in
post-production,
which is
largely unacceptable
to western audiences who are familiar with
sync-sound.
Some
thought language
was the
main
problem
and that the west did not like
subtitles,
so in the late 1990s Yash
Chopra
planned
to dub his
films,
starting
with Lamhe/Moments
(1993),
which has been screened
by
terrestrial BBC
as
Indian summer.
Many producers thought
western audiences did not
like the
song sequences
so cut
these,
often
leaving important
moments
missing
from films
made for 'the international audience'.
However,
these issues were
bypassed by
the new
technology
of the
DVDs,
which allows the viewer to choose
optional screening
of subtitles
in several
languages,
which are also
popular
with some of the
diaspora population.
(The
DVD is a mixed
blessing
as the
huge
number of
cheap pirated
DVDs is
causing great
problems
to
distributors.)
The number of
prints
released in cinemas has increased as the
multiplex
cinema allows exhibitors to take a risk
by screening
a film in a small
theatre,
even in cinemas
beyond
the
exclusively
South Asian cinemas in the distant
suburbs,
where
they
are now screened in two
versions,
with and without subtitles.
Among
the other usual reasons cited for the failure of Hindi films in the west are the
Hollywood competition, language, length, songs
and
dance,
melodrama and
so on. Yet
while these factors
are
undoubtedly important, they
do not
explain
how
Hong Kong
action
films or
other
non-Hollywood
cinemas run in the west. It seems that it is also because the
view of India
presented
in Hindi cinema conflicts with the
way
the west
imagines
India.
The
images
of India
enjoyed
in the west date back to the
days
of the British
Raj
-
an exotic
tourist
destination,
typified by
the
premier
destination of the
Taj
Mahal.2 India is seen as
a land of Oriental
exotica,
of
peasants
and
maharajas,
monuments and
spirituality.
Such
images
were
particularly popular
in the television and film
Raj
revival of 1980s' Britain
(Rushdie 1991)
and in
films,
which showed India as an exotic
backdrop,
such
as the James
Bond film
Octopussy (1983),
or Baz Luhrmann's Moulin
Rouge (2001).
Indian writers in
English frequently
accuse one
another of
peddling
such exotic fantasies to
westerners,
but
this is not the
place
to enter such a
fiercely
contested debate.
More realistic
images
of India are also
popular
in the
west,
in
particular
in the Indian
English
novel,
modern India's
greatest
cultural
export
which has
appealed
so much to a
western audience and with
literary prize
committees. These novels are
often
family sagas
of
decay
and
nostalgia
for the old middle classes
(for example,
Anita Desai and Vikram
Seth),
although they may
be set in more exotic narratives such as those of Arundhati
Roy
and Salman Rushdie.
However,
there is also interest in a
less
fantastical, modern,
urban
India as
shown in the novels of Vikram Chandra.
Although
these novels are some of the best
selling
novels in the
west,
these
images
of India have not been
popularised
in films in the
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west
except
in the films
by
Ismail Merchant and James
Ivory,
such as
Shakespeare-wallah
(1965),
which are
mostly scripted by
the novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
The Indian 'art' film also has a firm
following
in the
west,
although
it is limited to the
festival circuit
except
in the case of the renowned
director,
Satyajit Ray. Ray's
cinema
is made in a
realistic
manner,
close to
European
cinema.
Although castigated
in India
for
pedalling images
of
poverty
to the
west,
Ray's
films
range
from the
modern,
urban
setting
to the feudal landowner's world as well as rural
society. Ray
drew
very
much on
the
Bengali
novel for his
stories,
and
perhaps
it is in
part
the closeness of these cinemas
to the 'art' novel that accounts for their
popularity.
Yet in 2002 it seemed that a real
breakthrough
in
marketing
terms was made as in the
UK at
least,
there was
recognition
of
'Bollywood',
a term
generally
disliked in the Indian
film
industry. Many aspects
of British Asian culture
-
from food to
comedy
-
had become
mainstream British culture in the late 1990s. The media in
particular
saw the
emergence
of
significant figures
such as Meera
Syal
(actor, writer, comedian)
and Gurinder Chadha
(film
director).
In 2002 a series of
loosely
connected events
comprised Bollywood
London. The
department
store
Selfridges
hosted several floors of
furnishing,
fashion and food
('23
and
a half
days
of
Bollywood'),
the British Film Institute co-ordinated seasons of South Asian
films
('ImagineAsia'),
the Victoria and Albert Museum hosted 'Cinema India: the art of
Bollywood',
and Andrew
Lloyd
Weber
produced
a
Bollywood
musical,
Bombay
Dreams,
while
many
books on Indian cinema were
published.
The media
reports
of these events
suggest
the media's
greatest
interest is in the 'shock' factor
-
the kitsch aesthetic of 1970s
Hindi
cinema;
the contrast of rich and
poor
and so on.
Bollywood
is
certainly
a
buzzword,
but it remains to be seen if it is
just
a
passing
fashion that allows commodification of India
as exotica of fashion and food and tourist fantasies.
Although
these events made a new
image
of India
widely
known in the
west,
few of
these events led to the creation of
a new audience for the Hindi film and
producers
still
felt that it was almost
impossible
to make a film succeed in all these markets.
However,
in 2002 a Hindi
film,
Lagaan
was nominated for
an
'Oscar' as best film in a
foreign
language, having already
been
widely
reviewed and discussed in the British media.3
Very
much a mainstream Hindi film and a
big
hit in
India,
it eschews
'Bollywood'
kitsch and
commodification of Indian culture in favour of features
long neglected
in Hindi cinema
notably
a historical
genre
in a
village setting.
It also avoided elements
thought
crucial to
the 90s
film,
such as
glamorously presented
female
stars,
trendy
clothes,
'item
songs'
and
foreign
locations. This
paper
looks at how these features of the film which were sees as
risks
actually
led to its success at the box office worldwide.
Lagaan:
the
producers'
view
Lagaan
is set in
Champaner village,
north
India,
1893. As in the other
princely
states of British
India,
the
villagers
have to
pay
an
agricultural
tax,
lagaan.
The
Raja pleads
with
Captain
Russell
(Paul Blackthome)
to lower the tax as the rains have failed and the
villagers
will
starve,
but is
told instead to raise double
tax,
dugna lagaan.
The
villagers
and the
Raja plead
with
Captain
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Russell to lower the tax.
Annoyed by
the
villagers'
rebellious
nature,
in
particular
Bhuvan's
(Aamir Khan) comparison
of cricket to their
game gulli-danda,
Russell
says
he will excuse them
tax for three
years
if the
villagers
beat the British at cricket. If
they
lose,
they
will have to
pay
extra tax. The
villagers
are
unwilling
to take the
risk,
but Bhuvan
encourages
them one
by
one to
join
him in his
fight against
British
injustice.
Bhuvan tries to teach the
villagers
what he thinks is
cricket but
they
are
clearly
in need of
help.
This comes in the form of Russell's
sister,
Elizabeth
(Rachel Shelley),
whose sense of
fairplay
and enthusiasm for India allows her to
oppose
her
brother
by teaching
the
villagers
cricket. Gauri
(Gracy Singh),
the
village girl
who dreams of
marrying
Bhuvan realises Elizabeth is in love with
him,
but Bhuvan has no delusions about his
future. The other
villagers
unite
against
the
enemy, Hindu,
Muslim and
Sikh,
high
and low caste.
During
the
three-day
match the
villagers
face
many setbacks,
not least the
treachery
of one of
their
number,
but Bhuvan wins
against
all odds and the
villagers
are relieved from their taxation.
Gauri and Bhuvan are now
ready
to
marry,
while the other
villagers
return to their
daily
routine.
Elizabeth returns to
England,
while her brother is
posted
to Africa.
The
story
of the
making
of
Lagaan
is told
by Satyajit
Bhatkal in The
spirit of Lagaan
(Bhatkal 2002).
He narrates how Ashutosh
Gowarikar,
disheartened
by
his lack of success
as an actor and a
director,
wrote a
script,
which was to be the basis for
Lagaan. Knowing
it was
risky,
he tried to recruit a
major
Hindi film
star,
Aamir
Khan,
who had acted in one
of his films but Aamir
rejected
the
script
as he
thought
it took risks with
genre
and lacked
a
potential
audience,
a view that other
experienced industry personnel
shared:
Javed Ahktar
[one
of India's most famous
scriptwriters
and the
lyricist
for
Lagaan],
he was
telling
us that if we had made a list of all the 'don'ts' in Indian
cinema,
we broke all of them in
Lagaan.
To
begin
with it is a
period
film. It is a
film,
which has a rural
background,
which hasn't worked
for like
twenty years.
The stars are
wearing
dhotis,
whereas
today
all the stars wear DKNY and
Polo
Sport.
The women in the film are all
fully
clothed. A
sports
film has
never worked in India.
There is
no
arbitrary
love
song
shot in Switzerland. You have British actors
speaking English
in
portions
of the film. The main romantic
song,
half of it is in
English.
And then
you
have Amitabh
Bachchan's narration. Whenever he has
given
his voice as a narrator to
any film,
that film has
bombed. And Bachchan himself told me that! He
said,
T don't mind
doing
it for
you,
but I
just
want
you
to know...'
(Khan 2001).
Aamir was
eventually persuaded
to act in the film
by
Ashutosh because he loved the
story,
not because he calculated its
generic potential
and was
willing
to take a risk. He had earlier
acted in movies which seemed
risky (Deepa
Mehta's 1947
Earth,
John Matthew Mathan's
Sarfarosh)
but which
paid
off but this
was
the first time he was to act as
producer
where
the
consequences
of failure are
also economic. A few months after the film's
release,
he
says
of its success:
I think because it is a basic human
story
that has some echoes in
every country.
It's a
story
about
the
underdog achieving
the
impossible,
of David
against
Goliath. It's kind of like mAsterix comic
book: The little Gaulish
village standing up against
the Roman
Empire,
but with a lot of humour.
There have been lot of films made in
India,
by
Indians and
non-Indians,
about the British
Raj,
and it's a
very
serious and sombre
topic.
But that is not what our film is about. Our little
village
is not even concerned about
independence. They
don't know India as a nation at
all;
it's too
large
for them.
They
are
just
concerned about their
village
and whether their children
get
food or not.
They
have small needs. That's
why
I think is
doing
so well with
people
all
over,
including people
in
every part
of India
(Khan 2001).
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Aamir asked the director not to tell
producers
that he had
agreed
to be involved. When
no
producers
would take the
script,
Aamir,
the son of a famous film
producer,
decided
to take the risk of
production
himself,
along
with his
wife,
Reena
Datta,
forming
a new
company,
Aamir Khan Productions. The
project
was
financed
by
well-known
financier,
Jhamu
Sughand.
Aamir,
a
'self-confessed control
freak',
wanted to
change
the
way
Hindi movies were
made
(Hines 2001).
He insisted on the film
being
made in a
single
schedule,
a bound
script, fully preplanned
and
budgeted
for.
The reason for that is not
just
because I want to be different but because that is the
way
I feel a
film should be made. A film should have a
complete script
before even
starting pre-production.
People
should be
working only
on one film at a time.
Up
to now as an actor I have been
working
in a
system
that is not used to
doing
those
things,
so for me it's been a
struggle, swimming against
the stream.
Finally
I had to
produce Lagaan myself
to make it the
way
I had been
talking
about
(Khan 2001).
When Aamir showed me some
songs
and other
sequences
about four months before the
release,
although
I considered them
excellent,
I had doubts about the box office
potential
of the film.
Although
I have been reminded about
my
error
subsequently,
this was a view
shared
by
distributors and others in the
industry
who saw it was a
well-made film but
one,
which did not have a
ready-made
audience. The
producers
did not set out to make a film
to
appeal
to
any
particular
audience but ended
up by making
a film which achieved the
greatest
international
recognition
of a Hindi film for
many years
while
being
a box office
success at home and overseas. Producers in the
industry,
such as Yash
Chopra
himself,
regard
it as a brilliant film and it is
widely
held to be a
landmark in the
history
of Hindi
cinema.
Lagaan:
the
reception
The
producers
had to undertake a
major marketing campaign,
as the film seemed to have
little in its favour
except
the
presence
of Aamir Khan and the music
by
AR Rehman.
However,
they
met this
challenge
with a
strong campaign
on television as their overseas
distributor is
Sony
Entertainment Television which has a
popular
channel which featured
short trailers/teasers almost
every
hour,
supported by
a
good
website,
publicity
booklet,
and various other
marketing
events.4
Lagaan
created
a new audience for Hindi mainstream films in the UK.5 It was well
marketed to non-Asian media in the UK and was
reviewed,
unusually,
in
listings
in the
mainstream British
press
and in film
journals
such as
Sight
and Sound.6
This was done
by holding previews
in mainstream cinemas in the
key
Leicester
Square
area to which
members of the western
press
were invited and which the cast and crew attended. The
film had
good
subtitles and a
glossy,
attractive booklet
(similar
in
design
to the
website)
was distributed to the invited audiences. The
press
who were aware of
public
interest in
'Bollywood'
films,
but had found them inaccessible
through
lack of
publicity
information,
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subtitles and
regular screening
times,
were keen to attend
previews. They
then reviewed
the films in the mainstream
press,
which is
very important
for audiences in the UK.
By
contrast,
even when
Lagaan
moved to the South Asian
cinemas,
it still had a mixed
audience as word of mouth and the 'Oscar' nomination made it the most talked about
Indian film to date.
Lagaan
also benefited from
'negative publicity'.
Andrew
Roberts,
a
Cambridge
historian,
highly regarded
for his
political biographies,
is a lone
figure
in
arguing
that
the
Raj
was,
on the
whole,
a
good thing.
He made some rather
silly
remarks in the
Daily
Telegraph
when
Lagaan
was nominated for the 'Oscar'. These were
widely reported
in
the Indian media as he said that
Lagaan
was an anti-British film. The film is
quite clearly
not
anti-British,
as it shows the villain
being
held in
contempt by
the British
authorities,
who
uphold justice
at all
times,
and
portrays
his sister as a heroine on the side of
right,
and has an Indian traitor who
betrays
the
villagers
to the villain.
The
marketing campaign paid
off well at the box office. Indian box office
figures
are
often unreliable and several websites
give differing figures
so the
following
should be
taken
as a
guide. Lagaan
collected Rs 35
crore,
almost twice the costs of its
budget.7
Lagaan
was much more successful outside India
being
declared the 17th
largest grossing
foreign language
film
earning
US$
1.4 m.8
Lagaan
collected
US$ 2,427,510
in India but
835,767
in the US and
710,967
in the UK.9
Lagaan
dominated the awards ceremonies for the films of 2001/2. It took seven of
thirteen awards at the Indian International Film
Awards;
it
swept
the Zee
awards;
it took
eight Filmfare
awards;
and four awards from Screen
(including
best film and best
director).
The 'Oscar' nomination remains
a matter of national
pride,
whatever its detractors
may
say
about the
producers pandering
to a western audience.
Lagaan
is the
only
mainstream Hindi film that has found favour with a
global
audience
although
it has not
penetrated deeply
into the western
market,
its returns
being
a fraction
of those of
a hit
Hollywood
movie. Other films seem to find
specific
audiences in
India,
among
the South Asian
diaspora
and the western audience. Producers have been able to
make films that
target
the
diasporic
audience and the
metropolitan
centres in India
(the
'classes')
or films that
appeal
to
particular regional
centres
(the 'masses'),
but are still
struggling
to make films that are
still
recognisably
Hindi films that
appeal
to western
audiences as well as the other audiences it has
already. Lagaan
is one of the few films that
have ever achieved in
reaching
all these markets.
One of the reasons for
Lagaan's
universal
appeal
is
simply
that it is a well-made film
that tells an
archetypal story
of the transformation of an
ordinary peasant
into a noble hero
through
his
struggle against injustice.
The defeat of the
powerful by
the
powerless
that
have the moral
upper
hand is a universal theme. The
peasant's
determination,
focus and
themes of
sacrifice,
love and
leadership
also recur in tales of
popular
folk heroes as well as
film heroes.
Lagaan
also draws on
other elements of film found in other
narratives,
such
as
the
Magnificent
Seven and Seven
Samurai,
movies about the ultimate
victory
of
simple
villagers against greater powers, buddy
movies and
so on.
Lagaan
contains
multiple genres
within the dominant historical
genre,
which it revives
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in a new form. The
sports
movie has its own
fans,
and the cricket match in
Lagaan
-
which
lasts
longer
than most
Hollywood
films
-
managed
to find an
appreciative
audience
even in
non-cricketing
America.
Lagaan
can also
appeal
as a film about
resisting
neo-colonialism
through
self-reliance and effort rather than
despair
in the face of insurmountable
odds,
which could have a broad
appeal
to a western audience while
having
a more
specific
meaning
to the Indian audience.
The visual culture of
Lagaan
also
appeals
to westerners as well as Indians
as it is
beautifully designed
and somewhat
exotic,
yet
realistic in the film's
village
context and
recognisably
Indian. Its sets are
by
Nitin
Desai,
a
highly regarded set-designer,
and are
realistically simple yet striking.
Khadi,
the
homespun
cloth
popularised by
Gandhi as
part
of the freedom
struggle,
was
used
by
the costumes
designed by
Bhanu
Athaiya (who
won
the 'Oscar' for her
designs
for
Gandhi)
and has become fashionable in the west as well as
in India since the film.
Lagaan's reception
went
against
the trend of the Hindi film in the west. In the
1990s,
the
Hindi film became
truly global
in as much as in addition to its
long-standing
non-western
audiences,
it created
a
significant
market in the west but
only among
the South Asian
diaspora (Dwyer 2000b).
This
globalising
of a
local,
non-western cinema
was in
part
due
to the celebration of the transnational Indian and the
upholding
of 'Indian values'. It is
ironic then that
Lagaan,
which has been the first mainstream Hindi movie to be a
major
global
and critical
success,
has done
so
by rejecting
the features of the 1990s film that
made it
global.
Like the 1990s
films,
Lagaan
celebrates Indian
values,
which are shown
here to be rooted as much in the Indian
past
as in the Indian
present.
However,
it differs
in
being anticosmopolitan
and
local,
eschewing
the
figure
of the transnational Indian
(of
course,
the
setting
of the film
predates
this
figure).
The west finds the 1990s Hindi film
unfamiliar,
as it does not refer to western
images
of India but to Indian
metropolitan
consumerist
fantasies,
which are different in their
aspirations
from western
consumerism,
which is well
provided
for in the west
by
American
film and television. It has
long
been
recognised
that entertainment is not
necessarily
universal but is
usually specific
to certain times and
places (Dyer 1977).
The 1990s Hindi
film,
which has
appealed
so much to the South Asian
diaspora,
does not make sense to a
western audience
except
as exotica or even kitsch.
However,
films like
Lagaan map
onto
western
understandings
of India
(see above),
as its
depiction
of
imperialism
is familiar
from
Empire
films and the
Raj nostalgia
of the 1980s.
Like
westerners,
the British Asians
enjoyed Lagaan,
but
they
still favour the 1990s
romance.
K3G,
though
it released in
December,
was the
biggest
box office hit of the
year,
and
emerged quickly
as such
as in its first weekend in the UK it reached number
3 in the UK
charts,
taking
,?473,355.10
Its audience
was
ready-made,
constituted
by
the
1990s
film,
which
came to see the second film of the famous
director,
Karan
Johar,
and
his
amazing
star-studded cast. The film had all the
right ingredients
-
music,
glamour,
a
diasporic
theme, poor girl-rich boy, family
conflicts and
so on
-
but has
something
of a
calculated feel
as it
clearly
courts its audience rather than
reaching
out to new
audiences.
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It was not
only
in the west but also in India that
Lagaan tapped
into
existing
markets and
created new
markets,
initiated in
part by marketing
but also
by
word of
mouth,
probably
the
most
important
way
of
creating
an audience for films in India where the critics'
opinions
are often
disregarded.
The
only existing
market for
Lagaan
in India
was
primarily
based on two star names
-
Aamir Khan and AR Rahman. Aamir Khan is one of India's
top
box office
stars,
who
moved from
college
kid to
tapori ('streetwise')
roles. His
character, Bhuvan,
is a
peasant,
a
subaltern,
who becomes heroic
through
the actions he takes in the film from
very ordinary
beginnings.
The film's
plebeian
reference is
very
different from the 90s
film,
recalling
the
Amitabh Bachchan roles of the
1970s,
reinforced
by
Amitabh's unmistakeable voiceovers.
The other
strong
factor in the film's favour was the music of AR
Rahman,
India's most
popular
and
highly paid
music director.
Although
the cricket match was not
part
of the
marketing campaign,
it was
important
in that the Indian cricket team is
always
a source of national
pride.
Indeed,
it is often said
that when all else seems to
go wrong, they
are the one constant success
story
of modern
India.
In the context of the Indian as well as the
global
market,
Lagaan goes against
the
popular
features of the 1990s film. It is
strongly regional,
as is shown in its use of the Avadhi
dialect of Hindi rather than
Bombay (Bambaiya)
Hindi mixed with
English,
its costume of
homespun
cloth rather than
designer
wear,
and its
setting
of an
ordinary village
rather than
spectacular
locations around the world.
Lagaan
has no reference to
bourgeois
and western
values,
having
a subaltern
viewpoint, upholding
the view the
peasant
rather than that of
the merchant or businessman so
popular
in the 1990s film. One of the
great
differences is
that
Lagaan upholds
inclusive
community
values,
rejecting
divisions of
caste,
region
and
religion,
rather than
focusing
on
family
values or
tub-thumping patriotism.
It also
gives
less
lip
service to
religiosity
and
ritual,
except
for folk
songs
and dances with
religious
references,
while the
temple
is seen as a
public space
rather than a
temple-palace.
Tis seismic shift in
genre
is
certainly important
in
extending
the Hindi films audience
and
may
also tell us
something
about the Indian audiences. It
may
be that the historical
has created its own audiences in India rather than
tap
into those
existing
for the 1990s
film
although
it is hard to determine this in the absence of audience studies.
Gadar,
a
film about a
proseperous
farmer of northwest
Inda,
who became a
hero,
found its
huge
audience in areas inhabited
by people
of similar social
backgrounds
to its hero.
However,
while
Lagaan''s
audience includes
many
who constituted the audience for the 1990s
film,
it also found for the first time a new
audience who could
appreciate
the universal
story
of the
villager. Although
the evidence is
inconclusive,
there
may
be new audiences in
India who
reject
the concerns of 1990s films. The 1990s also saw the rise of the lower
castes in India
(Jaffrelot 2002)
and
Lagaan may
have
appealed
to these sections of the
audience who celebrated heroes like
themselves,
who shared their values.
Nevertheless,
the concerns of the 1990s romance have reached
beyond
the immediate class reference to
all
aspiring
consumers,
many
of whom
may
belong
to lower classes and castes. It is
only
a
suggestion
that the
plebeian,
lower caste reference
may
appeal
to wider
groups
who share
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these
values,
returning
us to the ironical
position
that this film is
appreciated
more
by
the
western audience who have not watched the 1990s film.
The historical and other
genres
Despite
the remarkable success of several films of the
1990s,
2000 saw one of the worst
years
for Hindi films at the box office in India as the elements of the 1990s film did not
seem to be
finding
favour with the audience.
Lagaan,
with its refusal of
many
of these
defining
characteristics of the 1990s
film,
seemed a wild card. Yet it is
significant
that 2001
saw the release of two other historical
films,
Gadar and Asoka
(dir.
Santosh
Sivan).
Gadar
is the
story
of a Sikh
lorry
driver who falls in love with a
Muslim convent-educated
girl.
He saves her
during
the
partition
riots where she loses her
family
and
they marry
and have
a child. She
goes
to Pakistan to find her
family
but when
they try
to force her to
remarry,
her husband comes to rescue her. Gadar was the
biggest
box-office
grosser
of
2001,
and
the
longest
box office
runner,
being
in the theatres for 18 weeks in
Bombay/Mumbai.11
It found enormous audiences in the areas of India where the
partition
had
displaced
the
largest populations, namely
the northwest. The audiences here were said to be such that
early morning screenings
of the films had to be held as
villagers
came to the towns to see
this film. Asoka was the
great
Buddhist
emperor
of
India,
who
began
his rule as a brutal
warrior,
eschewing
violence after his conversion. His edicts
are
the first
writing
in
India,
and his lion
symbol
has become India's national emblem.
Although
in international box
office
figures12
Asoka
appears
as the 20th
largest grossing foreign
film,
earning Sim,13
it
was
declared
a
flop
in India.14 It took risks
by concentrating
on a romantic
legend
rather
than the
story
of a noble
emperor.
In the
west,
the Buddhist
story might
have attracted a
greater
audience but the
story
of the warrior
king
had little fresh
appeal
and
nothing
that
was
specifically
Indian about it. Asoka is
barely
known in the west and more needed to be
made of
why
he is known as 'Asoka the Great'.
In
many ways
the historical was a
genre ripe
for
revival,
as it is one of the most
enduring
genres,
which has been
popular
since the
beginnings
of cinema. Genres
operate
in
cyclical
patterns
of
popularity
(Altman 1999),
and the historical was revived in the west in the
1990s,
when some of the
greatest
hits included
Braveheart,
Gladiator and
Titanic,
the
latter
having unprecedented
international
success,
as did
Elizabeth
(1998),
whose
director,
Shekhar
Kapur,
had
previously
made mainstream Hindi movies
including
Mr India
(1987).
However,
the historical film had faded from the Indian screen
during
the
1960s,
although
it had some extended life
on television serials.15
Perhaps
it is
significant
that the last
major
film in the west that concerned India
was the 'Oscar'
winning
Gandhi,
which
depicted
the historical freedom
struggle,
at least in
part,
as a moral battle. In
India,
historicals
dealt
mostly
with
great
moments of India's medieval
past, usually
set in the
Mughal
and Maratha
periods
which are often
regarded
as India's
golden
ages,
and are
staged
as elaborate costume dramas whose
dialogues
afforded close links with the nationalist
movement.
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The
major question arising
from the
reappearance
of the historical in 2001 is
why
it
appeared suddenly
in so
many places.
The decline of the historical is often
explained
in
terms of
economics,
in that the
budgets
needed for
top
stars,
opulent
sets and costumes
for the
courtly
historical made them
unviable,
but in recent
years
budgets
for films with
contemporary settings
have reached unheard of
sums,
that there is now little difference
between the
budgets
for the two
types
of film. In the
west,
new
technologies
were essential
in the
making
of
Titanic,
for shots of the
ship sailing,
or in Braveheart to create
large
armies,
but these have been used less in Hindi films. Another reason is that the
producers
blame the box office failures of recent films on their weak stories and historicals
provide
a
ready-made, already popular story.
In the Indian
context,
the historical is
likely
to
be
popular
as it
deploys
the
major
attractions of Hindi cinema to
great
effect such as
spectacle by showing
well known
images
of the
past
as
well as
grandiloquent dialogue,
stylised gesture
and
resounding
music.16 Given that
producers
blame the lack of success of
Hindi films in recent times on their
poor stories,
the historical would seem an ideal choice
with their stories rooted in the melodrama of a shared
experience
of
popular history.
The
narrative of the historical film also builds on
melodramatic elements found in almost all
Hindi
cinema,
such as the
struggle
between
good
and
evil,
the former embodied
by
a man
(rarely
a
woman)
of the
people,
who takes a heroic
against
a
black-hearted villain. Marcia
Landy's analysis
of the historical
genre
in other cinemas
may
be extended to
explain
the
appeal
of the Hindi historical:
Official or elite historical
representations, especially
monumental narratives of national
formation,
are saturated with melodrama. The melodramas take the form of threats to national
continuity,
inevitably involving
scenarios of
physical
and
spiritual struggle;
or
personal,
familial,
and
group
sacrifice;
of
patriotism;
and of
an
intense and excessive concentration on
belonging
and exclusion.
Such scenarios are
justified
in terms of
biological
determinism,
especially
in relation to
questions
of individual and
group
survival
(Landy 1996:17).
The historical also
gives great play
to the
image
of the star. In most Hindi
films,
the star
image
invokes discourses about
nation,
sexuality
and
gender.
These can be
developed
to
a
greater degree
in the historical where the star is a
heroic,
usually
nationalist,
figure
and
since he is
usually
male,
embodies
contemporary
ideas about
masculinity
which seem
to be reinforced
by
their historical association
(Dyer
1998,
Dwyer 2000a).
He is often
sexually
attractive to women
closely
associated with the
enemy,
and who
may
help
save
him at their own
risk.
Lagaan
does not fulfil
many
of the
requirements
of the historical Hindi film nor does it
claim this
generic
definition. While it
may
be
disputed
whether it is
actually
a
historical
film,
it seems
that it is a new
mutation of the historical
genre,
in the sense
that it is not a
social
(which is,
by
definition,
set in the
present),
nor does it
belong
to
any
other
existing
genre.
It is a
hybrid,
in that it includes elements of the
village
film,
the
Raj
film,
the
sports
film and so on. I have called it a
historical as it is set in the
past,
at a
specific though
undetermined historical
moment,
which it
attempts
to
portray,
even
though
its characters
are
all fictional and it does not draw on
existing storylines. By calling
it a new
historical,
it can be linked to the other historical films of
2001,
Gadar and
Asoka,
rather than
seeing
188
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them as
belonging
to three
separate,
new
and unnamed
genres,
while Asoka has closer
links to the old historical
genre
of Hindi cinema. Hindi film
genres
have
always
been
hybrid
or
hyphenated,
so
it is not
surprising
that this new
historical
genre
should be so
too,
with Gadar also a
hybrid
as a
historical-partition-intercommunal
film. These three
historicals are
mostly
based on
original storylines,
which redefine the historical
genre
in
Hindi
cinema,
redeploying
motifs that define them rather than
sharing
a set of exclusive
features
(Neale 1980).
Asoka is nearest to the older form of the historical that is the
story
of a
well-known historical
character,
but breaks the rules
by
not
telling
the well-known
stories about him.
Lagaan
and Gadar tell their stories from a
plebeian viewpoint,
a feature
not
very
common in the earlier historicals.17
The
development
of a new
genre
is
likely
to tell us
something
about the wider
society
in
which it is
produced
and consumed.
Although genres
do not reflect a nation's
thoughts
at
a
given
time
(Neale 1990:64),
they
are often associated with shifts in mentalite
(Todorov
1984:80-93)
and it
may
be that the historical can be associated with new
ideologies,
which
require
the creation of new emblems of the
nation,
drawing
on
popular
stories. In
present
day
India,
Hindutva would be a clear candidate but historical films to date have not shown
indications of its
ideology,
with the
possible exception
of
Hey!
Ram
(dir.
Kamal
Hasan,
2000),
a box office failure.
Nevertheless,
it is
likely
that recent moves to 'rewrite' Indian
history
from a Hindutva
perspective
have led to a reconsideration of narratives of Indian
history
in some
quarters
as new versions of
histories,
new heroes and so on are created in
popular
discourses,
in education and
so on.
Genres also create
'genre
communities'
(Altman 1999:156-164)
in which 'films are
not
just
a content and a
form transmitted
by producers
to
consumers,
they
are also the
medium of an additional mode of communication that
groups
of consumers
carry
out
with each other'
(Altman 1999:162).
This is
particularly striking
in the case of the Hindi
film where
generic
communities
are constituted not
only by
films but
by
film
magazines
(Dwyer 2000a),
Internet sites and so on.
Given that these films are so
recent,
it is not
easy
to
identify
such
a
community already,
but it
may
be connected with a new
opening
of
memory.
Urvashi Butalia
(2000)
writes that she found an
unwillingness
to discuss
partition,
a situation that has
changed greatly
in recent
years
in
India,
perhaps
in the wake
of 1997's
golden jubilee
or because of the violent aftershocks of
partition currently being
felt in
Gujarat
State and in the current Indo-Pakistan tensions. This
reworking
of the
genre
of the historical film
certainly
allows for discussion of
history,
memory
and
nostalgia,
the
retelling
of
stories,
perhaps
in the
hope
of
creating
a national
consensus. It also creates
a
space
for new ideas of a
national
identity,
or a new definition of 'Indian values'. It
is
striking
that
Lagaan
not
only
stirs
up
national
pride
around cricket but also shows
the
necessity
of an
overriding religiously
and
ethnically
diverse
identity.
This
'unity
in
diversity'
is
depicted
as
being
in existence
over a
century ago
and can be seen as
opposing
ideas of communal and caste division.
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Concluding
remarks
It is
impossible
to
predict
what will
happen
next with the Hindi film at the box
office,
just
as no one could have
guessed
that 2001 would see two historical films
doing
so well
and one
achieving
international
recognition.
It is too
early
to see what affect
Lagaan's
international success
will have
on
the
industry.
It is not
unlikely
that this new
genre
will
develop
into
a further creolised
genre
and that other
hyphenated genres
will
develop.
It
seems that
attempts
to tailor films to
specific, imagined
markets are not
likely
to
succeed,
as
they
can
appear crudely cynical
and
manipulative.
Producers remain
eager
to reach as
many
markets as
possible,
but it seems almost
impossible
to find a film that will
appeal
to
the Indian audiences as well as the
diaspora
and the western audiences. It remains to be
seen whether
Lagaan
was
unique
in
finding
success with so
many
audiences. An
attempt
was made in 2002 to take a Hindi film to an international audience with the release of
the
highest budget
film to
date,
Devdas
(dir.
Sanjay
Leela
Bhansali), yet
another
version,
albeit much
altered,
of the much loved novel of the middlebrow middle classes of
Bengal.
Devdas,
from a rich
land-owning family,
cannot
marry
his
beloved,
so takes
up
with a
dancing girl
and kills himself in a
descent into alcoholism. Ashis
Nandy (2000)
called
Devdas a
'maudlin,
effeminate
hero',
who seems out of
keeping
with the modern
day
hero
of the 1990s
or the hero of
Lagaan
who is
willing
to take on the concerns
of others and
fight
for his beliefs. This
much-anticipated
film received a
good
initial
opening
in India
and
among
the
diaspora
but was
critically panned by
western critics and has not sustained
its
popularity.
Although
it seems
unlikely
that
Bombay
is about to become a centre
producing
films,
which find wider international
success,
diasporic
filmmakers are
making
films within
Hollywood
and western
independent
film
making
circuits. While it is almost a decade
since Shekhar
Kapur quit
India and Hindi films to make
highly
acclaimed films for an
international
audience,
these films that have not
appealed
in India. In the
intervening years,
however,
diasporic
film makers have found success with all
audiences,
notably
Meera Nair
with Monsoon
Wedding (2002)
and Gurinder Chadha with Bend it like
Beckham,
whose
Hindi version
Football-shootball,
hay
Rabal
(Football-shootball,
O
God!)
has been a
surprise
hit. These two films have little in
common,
except
that
they
are comedies with
serious
themes,
made in western
idioms,
in which the
major participants
are
South Asians.
It is a
sign
how much the Indian audiences have
changed
that these films have done
well,
although they
have not achieved the success of a
hit Hindi movie. These
changes
are
due,
at least in
part,
to the
expansion
of television in
India,
where
soap operas
are
creating
audiences for more mundane
family
melodramas and for western television
programmes
and
films,
sometimes dubbed into Hindi. Ten
years ago
these
films,
in
particular
Beckam,
would have looked alien and
exotic,
but now
Indians have seen British Asian culture on
television or
through
the
rapid
increase in international travel.
However,
Hollywood
remains the dominant form of international
filmmaking
and it
knows that
India,
with its
great
cinema
going
audiences is
likely
to
prove
a
good
distribution
circuit.
Hollywood
has also found an
increased audience in India in the last
decade,
with
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Titanic
being
the
biggest
hit of its
year
in
India,
and other
Hollywood
movies such as
Spiderman (2002)
are now
finding
audiences,
as
they
are now
appearing
in both
English
in dubbed versions. It
may
seem that
Hollywood
is once
again laying
claim to
global
and universal
status,
not least because of its
superior technology,
enormous
budgets
for
the films and their
marketing. Although
Hindi films are
entering
the UK and US box
office
charts,
they
are
yet
to become hits on the scale of
Hollywood
and British films
there.
Lagaan
has
clearly
made
steps
in the
right
direction and it remains to be seen if it
was a one-off or has started a new trend. One
option
is for Hindi filmmakers to follow
Shekhar
Kapur
in
switching
to
making
western films
but,
like
others,
Aamir Khan remains
adamant that he wants to
change
film
making
in
India,
to make films that
appeal
to a
western
audience,
but not
by giving up
the
unique
form of the Hindi film:
Indian cinema is
larger
than life. It's
got
a
sweep
to
it;
it's
got
a romance to it. The audience is
transported
into another world. Most
Hollywood
films are like this
also,
it's
just
that the world
they
create is a little different
...
we are not
looking
to the west for
inspiration.
We have our
own tradition of
great filmmaking.
When I think of what I want to do as a moviemaker I think of
Indian films of the '50s and
'60s,
of directors like Mehboob
Khan,
who made Mother
India,
of K.
Asif,
who made
Mughul-e-Asam,
of Bimal
Roy
and Gum
Dutt,
and as an actor of
Dilip
Kumar
(Khan 2001).
E-mail address: rd@soas.ac.uk
Notes
1.
Many producers say
if there was a
formula,
then
they
wish someone would tell them. This is
part
of the
process
Altman identifies in the creation of
genres:
the
producers' game (Altman
1999:38f).
2. See Edensor's
study
of tourism at the
Taj
Mahal: Edensor 1998.
3. American
coverage
came much
later,
after the 'Oscars'.
4. See:
http://www.lagaan.com/
5. Mira Nair's Monsoon
wedding, although
made in Hindi and a
huge
success in the west and in
India,
is not a mainstream Hindi film in terms of
production,
stars, music,
style
and so on.
6. Review of
Lagaan: http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/2001_10/
7. See:
http://www.mumbai-central.com/specials/bolly_2001 _roundup.html
8 See:
http://www.thefilmexperience.net/Awards/2001/01boxoffice.html
9
Figures
for the end of
July
2001 from:
http://www.cyberbollywood.com/boxoffice/history/2001/
0701/20.html
10. See:
http://www.mumbai-central.com/specials/bolly_2001
_roundup.html
11. It is one of the
biggest
ever box office successes in
India,
collecting
US$ 3,533,761
in
India,
120,000
in the USA and
155,401
in the UK.
Figures
for the end of
July
2001 from
http://
www.cyberbollywood.com/boxoffice/history/2001/070
l/20.html
12. Asoka is said to have earned
US$ 900,000
in
India, 700,000
in the US and
730,000
in the UK
-
http://www.cyberbollywood.com^oxofficemistory/2001/1101/23.html
13. See:
http://www.thefilmexperience.net/Awards/2001/01boxoffice.html
14. See:
http://www.cyberbollywood.com/boxoffice/articles/nov01/28.html
15. I am indebted to discussions with Urvi
Mukhopadhyay
on the historical films in earlier Indian
cinema. She is
currently researching representations
of the medieval in Indian cinema.
191
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16. See
Dwyer
and Patel
2002,
Chapter
1 on the attractions of the Hindi cinema.
17. When the
Hollywood
western was revived
by
Clint
Eastwood,
he
brought
a new
style
and
viewpoint
to the
genre.
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LAGAAN/Once
upon
a time in India
Writer/director: Ashutosh Gowariker
Editor: Ballu
Saluja
Director of
Photography:
Anil Mehta
Production
designer:
Nitin Chandrakant Desai
Sound: Nakul Kamte
Music: AR Rahman
Playback Singers:
Lata
Mangeshkar,
Asha
Bhonsle,
Alka
Yagnik,
Udit
Narayan,
Sadhana
Sargam,
Sukhvinder
Singh
and others
Lyrics:
Javed Akhtar
Choreographer: Saroj
Khan,
raju
Khan,
Vaibhavi
Merchant,
Ganesh
Hegde,
Terrence Lewis
Selected Cast: Aamir
Khan,
Gracy Singh,
Rachel
Shelley,
Paul Blackthorne
Producer: Aamir Khan
Presenter: Jhamu
Sughand
International distributor:
Sony
Entertainment Television Ltd.
193
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