Today we will talk about a film of Govinda in which he played a character that he had never played in any film, nor did he ever play any such character in the future. Govinda is known for his comedy and dance. Well known, today we will share with you the unknown facts related to his film "Maharaja.
Maharaja was a super natural adventure film that was released on September 4, 1998. In this film, we saw Manisha Koirala, Raj Babbar, Salim Ghosh, Shakti Kapoor, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, and Aruna Irani, along with Govinda and many actors and actresses.
The film was directed by Anil Sharma, who is known for directing Gadar Ek Prem Katha and U To Maharaja. He had made it before directing Gadar, but before Maharaja, he had done most of the films with Dharmendra.
Before the film Maharaja, Anil Sharma had done films like Hukumat, Elan-e-Jung, Farishte, and Tehelka with Dharmendra. Hukumat was one of the most successful films of the year 1987.
Now again, let's talk about our topic, Maharaja. The story of the film Maharaja was written by Anil Sharma and Shyam Goyal, and the film was produced by Narayan Das Makhija, which was his first and last film as a producer in Bollywood.
Film Story
The film was about Prince Kohinoor, whose family was killed by his uncle in the hope that he would deny the prophecy that he would die at the hands of a young prince who also has superpowers.
However, the young prince escapes without injury and, 20 years later, returns to avenge the murder of his family and take back his kingdom. Govinda portrayed Kohinoor, a prince with superpowers, while his uncle was played by Salim Ghaus, the main antagonist.
Music and lyrics
Nadeem-Shravan composed the music for the film. A total of seven songs were kept in its music album. The play's music album was very good, and it got a lot of positive responses from the people, and some songs from the film are still heard by the people.
The popular songs of the film were "Jab Tum Aa Jaate Ho Samne", "Maharaja Ki Kahani", "Ishq Mohabbat" and "Lyrics of all these songs, "Mera Pyara Mukhda Ek Number," were written by Sameer, and his voice was given in all these superhit songs by well-known singers Udit Narayan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Sonu Nigam, and Shankar Mahadevan.
Budget and box office collection
Now let's talk about the budget and box office collection of the film. The budget of the film was kept at around Rs 5 crore 75 lakh, and the film had collected around Rs 6 crore 35 lakh in India and around Rs 11 crore 20 lakh worldwide, and it had proved to be a flop at the box office at that time.
The film was released on theater with 175 screens, and at that time around Santan Lakh, 58 thousand people came to the theaters to watch this film, and it was number 19 in terms of box office gross in the year 1998.
5 highest grossing films of 1998
The year 1998 was number one. The film "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" was at number two, and "Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha" was at number three. "Soldier" was at number four, "Bade Mian Chhote Mian," and was occupied at number five, "Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya."
Let's talk about many unknown facts related to the film.
Fact number one
Director: Anil Sharma Sun was greatly influenced by the 1987 superhero film Mr. India, and it was only about three years after the film Mr. India that in 1990, Anil Sharma also planned to make a different movie based on a super natural power.
At that time, he thought of starting the film in 1990 under the name Maharaj, which actor Rajan Sippy was ready to produce. Jackie Shroff was going to be cast for the film, but when Anil Sharma talked to Jackie about the role, he refused.
He then spoke to Anil Kapoor and Sridevi, the pair who had already worked in the superhero genre film Mr. India. Anil Kapoor wanted that a new actor opposite him should be cast in this film because he said that he has worked with Sridevi in many films before, and apart from this, he has also worked with Sridevi in many upcoming films. He is also going to be seen with Sridevi.
For this reason, Anil Kapoor had requested the director at that time to cast his opposite Manisha Koirala in this film, who was going to make her Bollywood debut at that time with Subhash Ghai's film Saudagar, but Subhash Ghai did not want that Manisha Koirala should be seen in any other film before her film.
Saudagar and Subhash Ghai Manisha Koirala had refused to work on this film, and some other problems were also emerging in making this film at that time. Only Sridevi wanted this film to be made as a female superhero, and this The title of the film should be kept as Maharani.
Seeing so many problems in making the film, Rajan Sippy distanced himself from it, and he released "Amba" in 1990. The film of the same name was produced, and at that time, director Anil Sharma also gave up plans to make the film, and later in 1992, he made the action adventure film Tehelka. This film was the fourth highest grossing film of 1992, and it was declared a hit by Box Office India. This film was a hit for the Hollywood action adventure film "The Guns of Navarone" and was based on "Where Eagles Dare.
The three highest-grossing films of 1992
The year 1992 was in first place in terms of earnings. Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit's film Beta was in second place, followed by Divya Bharti and Rishi Kapoor's Deewana, and Amitabh and Sridevi's film Khuda Gawah was in third place.
Fact number two
Director Anil Sharma was very impressed with Govinda's acting, and he had finalized the casting of Govinda as the lead actor in his film Maharaja, although at that time many had given him many suggestions that he should not cast Govinda in this film.
It is because, at that time, people like to watch comedy films more than serious films of Govinda. But Anil Sharma cast Govinda in his film, and this proved to be his first and last film with Govinda.
The film Maharaja had not been able to do much at the box office and proved to be a flop. After this film flopped at the box office, Anil Sharma made the blockbuster film Gadar in year 2001 with Sunny Deol after almost 3 years.
Although Govinda had once later told about Anil Sharma during an interview with the AAP court that Anil Sharma had approached him as the first lead actor in the film Gadar, Govinda refused to work in this film because there were too many dialogues in it; apart from this, the character was too aggressive and i am a normal guy who does comedy and dance in most of my film and also there were other things that Govinda did not want to do at that time; hence, he refused to work in the film Gadar.
But Anil Sharma refuted this and told RJ Siddharth Kannan, "Maybe he misunderstood that I wanted to cast him in the film, and that's how the rumors started." "I'm ready to work with him on not one but 10 films, but I never wanted to mess with him, Sunny Deol was the first and last choice for the central role.
And as for the heroines, I had approached many of the big actresses of the time; Neelam was definitely not one of them. They all had some problems. Some didn't like the story; others didn't like us. Some had their own personal agendas. Some did not want to do historical films, although many people also said at the time that after the flop of a big film like Maharaja, Govinda did not want to work with Anil Sharma in any film again, hence she did not want to work in any film.
He had refused this, but later perhaps Govinda would have thought that if he had done the film Gadar at that time If he had worked in India, another all-time blockbuster film would have been included in his career.
Fact No. 3
In the film Maharaja, we saw Govinda and Manisha Koirala. Actually, Manisha Koirala was planning to work with Govinda on a film for a long time, and during the years 1997 and 1998, both of them signed about three films together.
These three films were "BV Number One," "Suddenly," and "Maharaja." Actually, the pair of these two were the first to be seen together in David Dhawan's film BV Number One, and at that time, both of them had released the film in 1997.
He also promoted his film BV Number One during a scene inside the film "Loha, "in which Manisha Koirala first takes the name of Govinda's previous films like Coolie Number One and Hero Number One and says that now I will become his wife Number One, although later "BV Number One" The film was not made with these two, and David Dhawan later cast Salman Khan and Karisma Kapoor in this film, and the pairing of Govinda and Manisha Koirala was seen by us in the two 1998 films Achanak and Maharaja Buss. Apart from this, we were not seen together in any film in the future either.
Fact No. 4
Anu Malik was first approached as music director inside this film, but Anu Malik refused to give music inside this film at that time due to some reason, and after Anu Malik, music director for this film, Nadeem Shravan was approached as director and released in 1998 only. There was a film in which Nadeem Shravan gave his music.
About a year ago, on August 12, 1997, Gulshan Kumar, the owner of Tseries Music Company, was shot dead by the Mumbai underworld, and later, during the investigation of the Mumbai Police, he also blamed Nadeem Shravan for this. The police investigation found that Nadeem Shravan was in contact with Abu Salim, and after the death of Gulshan Kumar, Nadeem Shravan left India and shifted to London.
While Nadeem-Shravan used to give his music within at least 14 to 15 days within a year, between the year 1998 and the year 2000, he had given his music in only four films. Out of these, in the year 1998, with the music of Nadeem-Shravan, only the film Maharaja was released, for which Nadeem-Shravan had recorded his music.
Later, in 2002, Nadeem Shravan was acquitted of all these charges, and he came back to India again and started giving his music again in films.
Fact number 5
The film Maharaja was shot at very beautiful locations. Many scenes of the film were shot at very natural locations, and many palace scenes shown in the film were shot at locations around Jaipur and the city of Rajasthan. Many scenes of the film were shot at Filmistan Studio and Kamalistan Studio.
Apart from this, many scenes of the film were shot around the locations of Rajaji National Park Uttarakhand, Lakshmi Vilas Palace Udaipur, Sajjangarh Hotel, Hilltop Lake, City Palace Jaipur, Golkonda Fort Hyderabad, Sanjay Gandhi Zoological Park, and Panvel.
Fact number 6
When the film Maharaja was released, Govinda's acting was praised a lot, but at that time, critics said that the biggest reason behind the film's failure was the story line and the special effects of the film. They said that the script of the film was very weak, and the special effects of the film were very bad.
Then see, in many scenes it is clearly understood that these are made with computer graphics, and if the film makers wanted, they could have made the film a little better at that time, but this scene of the film was quite bad, although at that time people had a lot of expectations from this film after watching some songs and scenes of the film as promos on TV. But when this film was released, it proved to be a flop, although in some places this film was also liked by the people.