“Hum Aapke Hain Koun” India’s first Rs 200 crore hit made in just Rs 6 crore sans villain and fights

“Hum Aapke Hain Koun”
India’s first Rs 200 crore hit made in just Rs 6 crore sans villain and fights

This Bollywood film was the first to gross Rs 200 crore worldwide despite being a family drama with no villains or action sequences.

It’s very rare that in the history of Indian cinema that action thrillers have gone on to be the highest of grossers.

The list of highest grossing Indian films has almost always been populated by large-scale action or war films.

Yet, there was a time in the 90s when family dramas were the flavour of the season.And it was amidst this time that a family film with no villains or fight sequences broke new ground at the box office.

The year was 1994 when Sooraj Barjatya made his second directorial venture – Hum Aapke Hain Koun. Though the film starred two of the leading stars of the time (Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit), it was not a huge film in scale. Mounted on a big but not lavish budget of Rs 6 crore, Hum Aapke Hain Koun was full of songs, dances, and melodrama.
But for the last bit, it did not resort to using any villains or fights, something Barjatya’s previous film Maine Pyaar Kiya still had. Yet, Hum Aapke Hain Koun netted Rs 72 crore in India (a record) and grossed Rs 210 crore worldwide, an all-time record for any Indian film.

But the sailing was not exactly smooth for Hum Aapke Hain Koun. The film included 14 songs in various situations, one of the highest for a Hindi film in years. Upon initial screenings, many members of the audience complained that the music was overkill and distracted from the plot. Some viewers even complained that the songs made the film too lengthy. As a result, Barjatya released the film again with a shorter version, containing two songs fewer. The change worked and Hum Aapke Hain Koun grew soon by word of mouth, becoming a huge hit.

The film grossed Rs 72 crore net in India, a record for any Indian film at the time, obliterating Maine Pyaar Kiya’s record of Rs 20 crore by a huge margin. Globally, the film made over Rs 200 crore, emerging only the second Indian film (after Disco Dancer) to cross the 100-crore mark. It was, however, the first to reach the 200-crore club. It was joined in that club by Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge the following year.

But the film remained the highest grossing Indian film for 15 years till Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots created the 300-crore club in 2009.

News Edit K.V.Raman