| Darr: A Violent Love Story | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Yash Chopra |
| Screenplay by | Honey Irani |
| Dialogues by | Javed Siddiqui |
| Story by | Honey Irani |
| Produced by | Yash Chopra |
| Starring | Sunny Deol Juhi Chawla Shah Rukh Khan |
| Cinematography | Manmohan Singh |
| Edited by | Keshav Naidu |
| Music by | Shiv–Hari |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Yash Raj Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 177 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | ₹32.5 million[1] |
| Box office | est.₹213 million[1] |
Darr: A Violent Love Story (Hindi pronunciation:[ɖər];lit.Fear) is a 1993 IndianHindi-languagepsychological thriller film directed and produced byYash Chopra under his bannerYash Raj Films. It starsSunny Deol,Juhi Chawla andShah Rukh Khan in the lead roles, along withAnupam Kher,Tanvi Azmi,Annu Kapoor, andDalip Tahil in supporting roles.
Darr released on 24 December 1993, coinciding with theChristmas weekend, and emerged as a major commercial success and was declared a blockbuster at the box-office. The film ranked as thethird highest-grossing Hindi film of the year and the highest-grossing Indian film of the year in overseas markets. It received widespread critical acclaim upon release, with high praise for the direction, story, screenplay, soundtrack, cinematography, costumes and the performances of the cast.
Darr proved to be a milestone for both Chawla and Khan's careers, catapulting them to stardom. The film emerged as Chawla's third consecutive commercial blockbuster success that year, followingLootere andHum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke, thus solidifying her career as a leading lady in the 1990s, while Khan's portrayal of an obsessive lover was widely applauded by critics and audiences alike.
Darr won theNational Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment at the41st National Film Awards. The film received nominations at the39th Filmfare Awards, includingBest Director (Chopra) andBest Villain (Khan), and won two awards:Best Comedian (Kher), andBest Cinematography.
Kiran Awasthi, a beautiful college student, visits her brother Vijay and his wife Poonam upon her return home. Rahul Mehra, her classmate who is in love with her, is relentlessly following her. AnSF officer in theIndian Navy,Lieutenant Sunil Malhotra is Kiran's boyfriend. HisCommanding OfficerCaptain Avinash Mehra, is Rahul's father.
Rahul makes an effort to be friendly with Sunil in order to be near Kiran. Rahul keeps calling her when she gets home and asks her to avoid Sunil, but despite her fear, she rejects Rahul's authority over her. She and her family are frightened when he visits her on both her birthday andHoli. Kiran and Sunil become engaged thanks to Vijay and Poonam, who think the stalker would never bother Kiran again.
Upon learning this, a furious Rahul attempts to murder Sunil but is unsuccessful. When Sunil is chasing Rahul, he doesn't know that the stalker is Rahul, he has an accident and is taken to the hospital. Kiran chooses to flee the city so that the stalker won't harm her beloved any longer but is apprehended by Sunil, who marries her that very night. Rahul is attacked by this and vows to take Kiran for himself. He kills the police officers sent to protect the couple and vandalizes their new home with graffiti reading "Śādī Mubārāka Kiraṇa" (Congrats on your marriage, Kiran) and "Tuma mērī hō Kiraṇa" (You are mine, Kiran).
This horrifies Kiran, who worries that she might lose her mind. Sunil decides to take Kiran on a surprise honeymoon toSwitzerland while booking extra tickets toGoa, so that the stalker goes away by misunderstanding that the couple is in Goa. Rahul falls for the trick and looks everywhere for Kiran in Goa in vain, but couldn't find her. Instead, he meets Vikram "Vicky" Oberoi, a friend from college, who is ill. Rahul then makes an effort to get to know Kiran's brother and sister-in-law by paying them daily visits to learn about Kiran's location.
Vicky calls Rahul and invites him to meet him. When he does, he discovers him on his deathbed, pleading with Rahul to kill him since he can no longer bear the anguish. After a brief pause, he kills his companion while creating the illusion that Vicky was the stalker. Kiran's family believes the stalker killed himself after failing to find Kiran and relax. Rahul is informed of her true whereabouts, and he shows up at her hotel.
He is acknowledged by Kiran and Sunil, who invite him to join their celebrations. However, Sunil learns that Rahul was Kiran's stalker when Vijay calls him and says that Rahul had been visiting him and Poonam but not mentioned he was going to Switzerland. Sunil sends Kiran to wait for him at a boat, before luring Rahul to the forest and attacking him. Rahul begs for mercy, stabs Sunil and then abandons him to perish. Later, as Rahul arrives at the boat, he tries to marry Kiran without her will and informs her that Sunil has died. Despite her pleading and begging, he hands her his mother's old saree and orders her to wear it.
Kiran locks herself in a room in the boat. When the boat's door is smashed and Kiran is yanked back out by Rahul and pretends to agree to marry Rahul, then it is discovered that Sunil didn't actually die and he returns to save Kiran bloodies. Enraged, Sunil brutally fights Rahul and ends up shooting him thrice. Dying, Rahul expresses shame for his actions and begs Kiran to not hate him. Kiran and Sunil return toIndia and visit their relatives once again.
Aditya Chopra, Yash Chopra's eldest son, wanted to make a film similar to the Hollywood filmCape Fear (1991) starringRobert De Niro, withRaveena Tandon,Deepak Malhotra, and Saahil Chaddha as the leads. However, Yash Chopra decided to take over the project and eventually changed the casting.[2]
Sridevi, who had previously collaborated with Chopra inChandni (1989) andLamhe (1991), was approached for the role of Kiran. The role was planned much like her previous roles inChandni andLamhe. However, she wanted Kiran to be the obsessed lover instead of the victim; Chopra refused this change of plot, causing Sridevi to opt out.[3]Madhuri Dixit was offered the role next, but she refused.Aishwarya Rai wasscreen tested for the role, but did not make the cut.[4]Divya Bharti was then signed.
Rishi Kapoor,Mithun Chakraborty andJackie Shroff were offered the role of Sunil, but they refused.Nitish Bharadwaj was then approached for Sunil's role, due to his popularity asLord Krishna inB. R. Chopra'sMahabharat. Bharadwaj rejected the role as he felt the role was not challenging enough. The role eventually went toSunny Deol, who had earlier been offered the role of the antagonist. Deol had declined it, believing that playing a negative role would be a risk to his career.
Sanjay Dutt was the original choice for the antagonist Rahul, but Chopra was unable to finalise him due to his conviction of illegal possession of arms.Sudesh Berry was then considered for the role, but was rejected after a screen test.[5]Rahul Roy was offered the role next, but he refused. The role was then offered toAjay Devgn, who turned the role down due to other commitments.[6][7]
Aamir Khan, who had previously worked with Chopra onParampara the same year, was signed as Rahul. Chopra replaced Bharti withJuhi Chawla at Khan's request.[8] However, problems arose when Khan asked Chopra for a joint narration of the script with him andSunny Deol. Khan's reasoning for this was that since he and Deol were two leading actors, they could hear their roles and if they were both satisfied, no ego hassles would happen henceforth. However, Chopra refused to heed to such a request. Khan was also unhappy with the way Deol's character beat Rahul up in the film's climax. Khan was then removed from the project. Ironically, after the release of the film, Deol was miffed as he felt that the other male lead’s role was given more weightage than his, thus pledging to never work with Chopra and his banner again.
After Aamir Khan was removed from the film,Shah Rukh Khan was cast as Rahul after Chopra's son Aditya Chopra had watched his debut performance inDeewana and suggested his name. Thanks to this suggestion by Aditya who was an assistant director on the film,Darr ended up catapulting Shah Rukh to stardom, and he went on to star in all of Chopra's future directorial ventures.
The film's titleDarr was suggested to Chopra by his other sonUday Chopra (who worked as an assistant director in the film) andHrithik Roshan.[9]
The music forDarr was composed by the duoShiv–Hari with lyrics of the songs penned byAnand Bakshi.
It was the second best-sellingBollywood soundtrack album of the year, being surpassed only byBaazigar (which also starred Shah Rukh Khan).[10] The soundtrack album sold about 4.5 million units in India,[11] earning at least₹10.8 crore (equivalent to₹78 crore or US$9.2 million in 2023).[12] Rakesh Budhu ofPlanet Bollywood in his review gave the album 8.5 stars out of 10.[13]
Darr's soundtrack marked one of the earliest instances ofUdit Narayan supplying his voice for Shah Rukh Khan. Narayan's voice went on to be featured in the soundtracks of every single one of Khan's collaborations with Yash Raj Films untilVeer-Zaara (2004).
| Darr | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | 1993 | |||
| Genre | Film soundtrack | |||
| Length | 42:12 | |||
| Label | Saregama | |||
| Producer | Shiv-Hari | |||
| Shiv-Hari chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Planet Bollywood |    [13] |
All lyrics are written by Anand Bakshi.
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Jaadu Teri Nazar" | Udit Narayan | 4:41 |
| 2. | "Darwaaza Band Karlo" | Lata Mangeshkar &Abhijeet | 6:05 |
| 3. | "Tu Mere Saamne" | Lata Mangeshkar & Udit Narayan | 6:07 |
| 4. | "Ishq Da Bura Rog (not in the film)" | Lata Mangeshkar &Vinod Rathod | 5:43 |
| 5. | "Solah Button" | Lata Mangeshkar,Kavita Krishnamurthy &Pamela Chopra | 7:35 |
| 6. | "Likha Hai Ye In Hawaaon Pe" | Lata Mangeshkar &Hariharan | 5:12 |
| 7. | "Ang Se Ang Lagana" | Vinod Rathod,Sudesh Bhosle,Alka Yagnik &Devaki Pandit | 6:49 |
| 8. | "Obsession (Dance Music)" | Instrumental | 2:18 |
At the domestic Indian box office,Darr became the third highest-grossing film of 1993, afterAankhen andKhalnayak, and was declared a blockbuster.[14] In India, it was released on 190 screens, with 19.96 million tickets sold. Its domestic gross was₹15.73 crore, including anet income of₹10.74 crore, which is equivalent to₹184.4 crore (US$28.32 million) when adjusted for inflation as of 2017[update].[1] Its domestic gross is equivalent to₹339 crore (US$52.06 million) when adjusted for inflation as of 2017[update].[a]
At the overseas box office,Darr was the year's highest-grossing Indian film of 1993, grossing $500,000 (₹5.58 crore).[15] Worldwide, it grossed₹21.31 crore (US$6.78 million),[1] equivalent to₹366 crore (US$56.2 million) when adjusted for inflation as of 2017[update].[a]
| Award | Category | Nominee | Result | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41st National Film Awards | Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment | Yash Chopra | Won | [16] |
| 39th Filmfare Awards | Best Comedian | Anupam Kher | Won | |
| Best Cinematography | Manmohan Singh | Won | ||
| Best Director | Nominated | Yash Chopra | Nominated | ||
| Best Villain | Shah Rukh Khan | Nominated | ||
| Best Music Director | Shiv-Hari | Nominated | ||
| Best Lyricist | Anand Bakshi for "Jaadu Teri Nazar" | Nominated | ||
| Best Male Playback Singer | Udit Narayan for "Jaadu Teri Nazar" | Nominated |
It was remade in Kannada asPreethse, starringUpendra as Chandu (Rahul),Shiva Rajkumar as Surya (Sunil) andSonali Bendre playing Kiran.[17] The film also partially inspired the 2005 Tamil filmChinna. The Telugu filmTapassu also borrowed some scenes fromDarr.[citation needed]
The teaser trailer for an intended five-part web seriesDarr 2.0 was released onYouTube on August 30, 2016. It was set to be a retelling of the film in a contemporary setting, portraying cyber-stalking and digital crimes. The web series was set to be produced by Ashish Chopra under the banner ofY-Films and directed by Vikash Chandra. Screenplay and dialogues are by Nikhil Taneja and Shubham Yogi.[18][19] The series was shelved.
Audience and the critics appreciated Shah Rukh Khan's dialogue: "I love you, K-k-k- Kiran" and it still remains iconic.[20]
DARR
Music Director: Shiv-Harl
Lyricist: Anand Bakshi
Sales: 40 lakh tapes
Value: Rs 10.8 crore