Darr

Darr: A Violent Love Story (transl. Fear) is a 1993 Indian romance thriller movie directed and produced by Yash Chopra through the studio Yash Raj Films. The film stars Sunny Deol, Juhi Chawla and Shah Rukh Khan, while Anupam Kher, Tanvi Azmi and Dalip Tahil appear in supporting roles.

For other uses, see Darr (disambiguation).

Darr: A Violent Love Story
Theatrical Release Poster
Directed by	Yash Chopra
Produced by	Yash Chopra
Written by	Honey Irani Javed Siddiqui
Starring	Sunny Deol Juhi Chawla Shah Rukh Khan Anupam Kher Tanvi Azmi Dalip Tahil
Music by	Shiv-Hari
Cinematography	Manmohan Singh
Edited by	Keshav Naidu
Production company	Yash Raj Films
Distributed by	Yash Raj Films
Release date	24 December 1993 (1993-12-24)
Running time	177 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹3.25 crore[1]
Box office	est.₹21.31 crore[1]

Darr was later remade in Kannada as Preethse and in Tamil as Chinna. Darr has won several accolades, including the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. The film received ten nominations at the 39th Filmfare Awards, including Best Director for Chopra, Best Actress for Chawla, Best Actor for Deol, and Best Villain for Khan, and won two awards, including Best Comedian for Kher. The film was reported to be an adaptation of the 1991 English movie Cape Fear.[2]

Plot

The film begins with Kiran (Juhi Chawla), a beautiful college student, returning home to her brother Vijay (Anupam Kher) and his wife Poonam (Tanvi Azmi) for Holi celebrations. She is being obsessively stalked along the way by Rahul (Shahrukh Khan), her classmate who has a crush on her. Kiran's boyfriend Sunil (Sunny Deol) is a Navy-Marine Commando officer and is on a mission to free a child hostage from some terrorists on the high seas. Sunil saves the child hostage. Sunil's Captain Mehra (Dalip Tahil) is also the father of Rahul. Rahul tries to be friendly with Sunil in order to be closer to Kiran.

When Kiran reaches home, she is continually stalked by Rahul on the phone. This causes much stress to herself and her family. He crashes Kiran's family's Holi celebrations incognito as a member of the band. Sunil asks Kiran to offer the band some money for their performance, where Rahul, veiled in Holi colours, whispers "I love you, K-K-K-Kiran" to Kiran, which disturbs her greatly and a foot chase ensues to find the hooligan who has invaded their house, but Rahul soon disappears into the crowd.

When Rahul receives the news of Kiran and Sunil's engagement, he tries to shoot and kill Sunil when the couple is out shopping for a wedding ring. He misses his aim and Sunil begins to chase him, from which Rahul narrowly escapes being unrecognized by Sunil.

Kiran and Sunil get married but Rahul still refuses to give up on Kiran. He kills the two cops assigned for their protection and defaces the newly married couple's home with graffiti that declares his love and which causes them more distress. To get away from the stalker, Sunil takes Kiran on a surprise honeymoon to Switzerland. Learning their location through devious means, Rahul turns up at their hotel in the Alps. Kiran recognizes him from college and the couple welcomes him to be part of their festivities. That very evening, Sunil finds out from Kiran's brother Vijay that Rahul is the one who has been Kiran's stalker all along. He sends Kiran away on a boat and confronts Rahul. Rahul tries to run, but Sunil catches up with him in a forest where they have a fight. Rahul stabs Sunil with a knife after feigning surrender and leaves him for dead. He then goes to the boat and tries to forcefully abduct Kiran, he wants to marry Kiran without her consent. But Sunil comes back and brutally beats him before shooting and killing him. Kiran and Sunil then return to India and reunite with their family.

Cast

Actor	Character	Description
Sunny Deol	Lieutenant Commander Sunil Malhotra	Male Lead (Protagonist)
Juhi Chawla	Kiran Awasthi/Malhotra	Female Lead
Shah Rukh Khan	Rahul Mehra	Male Lead (Antagonist)
Anupam Kher	Vijay Awasthi	Kiran's Elder Brother
Tanvi Azmi	Poonam Awasthi	Kiran's Sister-In-Law and Vijay's Wife
Dalip Tahil	Captain Avinash Mehra	Rahul's Father and Sunil's Boss
Annu Kapoor	Vikram Oberoi (Vicky)	Rahul's Friend
Vikas Anand	Dr. Ajay Gupta

Production

The film was inspired by the 1991 American film Cape Fear.[3][4] Sanjay Dutt was the original choice of the role of antagonist Rahul, but Chopra was unable to finalize him because of his jail sentence due to illegal possession of arms. Sudesh Berry was then considered for the role, but was rejected after a screen test. Ajay Devgan was offered the role of Rahul, but he could not accept due to other commitments.

Later on, Aamir Khan (who had worked on Chopra's Parampara) was cast as Rahul.[5] Khan later had other issues with the filming as he was not happy with the way Deol's character repeatedly punched his character in a fight sequence. He was further discontented when Chopra selected Divya Bharti for the female lead.[6][7][8] Therefore, he opted out of the film although Divya was later replaced by Juhi Chawla.

After Aamir Khan left the film, Shah Rukh Khan was cast as Rahul. Darr helped bring Shah Rukh Khan to stardom and he went on to star in all of Chopra's films. Rishi Kapoor and Jackie Shroff were offered Sunil's role before Sunny Deol. Mithun Chakraborthy was also a strong contender for Sunil's role along with Rishi Kapoor and Jackie Shroff.

Sridevi, who had worked with Chopra in his previous two films, was original choice for role of Kiran. Role was crafted and planned much like her role in Chandni. This could be observed in movie infact Chopra admitted dressing Kiran like Chandni. But Sridevi refused to accept the role as it was. She instead wanted Kiran's character to be obsessed lover but Chopra did not agree to that. After Sridevi, role was offered to Raveena Tandon, who refused because of swimsuit requirement by Chopra.

Nitish Bharadwaj was approached for Sunil's role after Rishi Kapoor and Jackie Shroff rejected the role. This is because of his immense popularity as Lord Krishna's role in B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat. But Nitish rejected the role claiming that the role is not as challenging as it would be.

The film's title Darr was suggested to Yash Chopra by Hrithik Roshan and Uday Chopra.[9]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Darr was composed by the duo Shiv-Hari (Shiv Kumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia). It was the second best-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of the year.[10] The soundtrack album sold about 4.5 million units in India,[11] earning at least ₹10.8 crore (equivalent to ₹63 crore or US$8.8 million in 2019).[12] Rakesh Budhu of Planet Bollywood in his review gave the album 7.5 stars out of 10.[13]

Darr
Soundtrack album by Shiv-Hari
Released	1993
Genre	Film soundtrack
Length	42:12
Label	HMV Records
Shiv-Hari chronology
Sahibaan (1993) Darr (1993)

Professional ratings

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"	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"	Alka Yagnik, Vinod Rathod, Sudesh Bhosle, Devki Pandit	6:49

Box office

At the domestic Indian box office, Darr became the third highest-grossing film of 1993, after Aankhen and Khalnayak, 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 a net income of ₹10.74 crore, which is equivalent to ₹184.4 crore (US$26 million) when adjusted for inflation.[1] Its domestic gross is equivalent to ₹339 crore (US$48 million) when adjusted for inflation.[lower-alpha 1]

At the overseas box office, Darr was the year's highest-grossing Indian film of 1993, grossing ₹5.58 crore.[15] Worldwide, it grossed ₹21.31 crore,[1] equivalent to ₹366 crore (US$51 million) when adjusted for inflation.[lower-alpha 1]

Remakes

Darr was remade in Kannada as Preethse, starring Upendra as Chandu (Rahul) Shiva Rajkumar as Surya (Sunil) and Bollywood actress Sonali Bendre playing Kiran.[16] The film also partially inspired the 2005 Tamil Chinna, starring Arjun Sarja and Sneha in lead roles. The Telugu film Tapassu also borrowed some scenes from Darr.

The teaser trailer of five-part web series Darr 2.0 was released on YouTube on August 30, 2016. It is to be a retelling of the film in a contemporary setting, portraying cyber-stalking and digital crimes. The web series is produced by Ashish Chopra under the banner of Y-Films and is directed by Vikash Chandra. Screenplay and dialogues are by Nikhil Taneja and Shubham Yogi.[17][18]

Awards

Award	Category	Nominee	Result	References
National Film Awards 1993	National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment	Yash Chopra	Won	[19]
39th Filmfare Awards	Best Comedian	Anupam Kher	Won	[20]
	Best Cinematographer	Manmohan Singh	Won
	Best Film	Yash Chopra	Nominated
	Best Director	Yash Chopra	Nominated
	Best Actress	Juhi Chawla	Nominated
	Best Actor	Sunny Deol	Nominated
	Best Villain	Shahrukh Khan	Nominated
	Best Music Director	Shiv-Hari	Nominated
	Best Lyrics	Anand Bakshi for "Jaadu Teri Nazar"	Nominated
	Best Male Playback Singer	Udit Narayan for "Jaadu Teri Nazar"	Nominated

Notes

1. Inflation rate of 17.17 times: ₹10.74 crore domestic net equivalent to ₹184.4 crore (US$26 million).[1]

References

1. "Darr - Movie - Box Office India". boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
2. https://m.rediff.com/movies/2000/jan/31preet.htm
3. "Rediff On The NeT, Movies: The Preethse review". Rediff. 31 January 2000. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
4. Chintamani, Gautam (12 March 2016). "After 'Darr', Shah Rukh Khan channels Robert De Niro again in 'Fan'. Will it help?- Entertainment News, Firstpost". Firstpost.
5. "When Yash Chopra sidelined Sunny Deol for Shah Rukh Khan". CatchNews.com. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
6. Madhuri (18 February 2017). "BLAST FROM THE PAST: When Divya Bharti CRIED Because Of Aamir Khan & Salman Came To Her Rescue!". FilmiBeat. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
7. "When Divya Bharti cried because of Aamir Khan and Salman Khan came to the rescue - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
8. "Did You Know: Aamir Khan got Divya Bharti replaced with Juhi Chawla in Darr due to THIS reason?". PINKVILLA. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
9. "24 years of Darr: We bet you didn't know these 7 unknown facts about Shah Rukh Khan's film". India TV. 24 December 2017.
10. "Music Hits 1990–1999 (Figures in Units)". Box Office India. 22 January 2009. Archived from the original on 15 February 2008. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
11. "Making Music Like Ne'er Before". Outlook. 13 March 1996.
12. "India Today". India Today. 19: iv. 1994. DARR
    Music Director: Shiv-Harl
    Lyricist: Anand Bakshi
    Sales: 40 lakh tapes
    Value: Rs 10.8 crore
13. "Darr Music Review". Retrieved 30 March 2018.
14. "Box Office 1993". Boxofficeindia.com. Archived from the original on 14 August 2013. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
15. "Top Overseas Grossers 1993". Box Office India. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
16. He Ram! What's going on? rediff.com
17. Dixit, Mini. "Shah Rukh's Darr is getting a creepy, stalker-ish, web series makeover". India Today. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
18. Ramachandran, Naman (30 August 2016). "Early Shah Rukh Khan Film 'Darr' Revived as Indian Web Series". Variety. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
19. Gopalakrishnan, K.; Aggarwal, Semugha. 41st National Film Festival (PDF). Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. pp. 18–19.
20. "Filmfare Awards (1994)". IMDb. Retrieved 12 September 2016.

Further reading

• Chowdhury, Purna (2010). "Bollywood Babes: Body and Female Desire in the Bombay Films Since the Nineties and Darr, Mohra and Aitraaz: A Tropic Discourse". In Mehta, Rini Bhattacharya; Pandharipande, Rajeshwari V. (eds.). Bollywood and Globalization: Indian Popular Cinema, Nation, and Diaspora. Anthem Press. pp. 56–60. ISBN 978-1843318330.

External links

• Darr on IMDb