Dharmesh Darshan’s Raja Hindustani (1996), a love story of a small town taxi driver and a rich girl, took a special place in everyone’s hearts and won the moolah and the box office. From the songs, dialogues and graphic locations to the kissing scene, this protagonist of Aamir Khan and Karisma Kapoor remains etched in the minds of filmmakers.
As the film celebrates 25 years since its release, we are walking in the memory lane with some actors to find out what makes it popular even today.
Navneet Nishan, appears in the role of Kamal, also known as Kammo, Singh
Over time, I have come to appreciate even more my work experience in film. The director’s involvement in combining the cast and making sure they have chemistry translates beautifully on screen. I do not know if the movie is relevant today, but it is in a way a cult. There are two things that people say when I meet them, one is Tara and the other is Raja Hindustani.
I remember when we lost Veeru ji (Veeru Krishnan), Darshan and I cried for days. Even if we do not meet, love is there, which is very rare now. It is a bit cut and dried in the world of cinema now. It is much more professional. But off-screen chemistry translates to the big screen, and that happened in the case of the movie.
Archana Puran Singh, appears as Shalini Mitra Sehgal, also known as Shalu
The film reinvented Karisma Kapoor at the time. She made a variety of films and Dharmesh gave her a whole new look with great style. Since then, she has not looked back. Dharmesh made a highly commercial film with very nice aesthetics and sensibilities, which is very difficult to do. We did workshops and pre-production work, which was very new at the time.
He paid so much attention to each character and did not focus on the main protagonist, which is why each character is etched in people’s memories. Even after so many years of being on Instagram, people pinged me to say they hated me as Shalu, but you are a good person. They were identified with negativity. It is a compliment. I’m glad I was able to dispel this image.
Suresh Oberoi, considered Bakshrath Sehgal
It was a nice emotional film, with a story. It was old school. It is a well-made film. We all worked very hard for that. It took a long time to make, more than he could, thank God, it worked in the coffers. I was just trying to play the role of Pran from the movie, Bobby. It’s more of a fairy tale, we usually do not see the love story of a taxi driver and a princess working. The story is a little difficult to swallow today. Now, I do not think it will work well because we see different types of movies, something that is dictated by quarrels, people flying in the air with a fist or dancing. This is a different fantasy.
