30 Years Of Hum Aapke Hain Koun: Anupam Kher Remembers When He Got Facial Paralysis

Sooraj Barjatya’s Hum Aapke Hain  Koun  was not all fun and games. At least not for  Anupam Kher. The actor recalls, “It was during that  pass-the -pillow. The  shooting of that was about to start. It was the first day and I woke up to the twisted mouth I had no idea. The previous night Anil Kapoor’s wife  Sunita during a dinner  at their home,  told me that you are not blinking from one eye  .She told me to  go to a  doctor a  neuro-specialist at that time in Bombay Hospital and when I went to doctor  he  started medication and told me  to stop all  work-related  activity for two months.Yes, that  was the first day of this twenty-day schedule , the set  was erected all the cast was there and everything. After the doctor’s  diagnosis, I came out sat in the car and I thought if I go home and rest for two months and don't shoot, that means  a  complete  defeat.So I went to  to the  studio .Everyone on  the set  thought  I was  doing some comedy  with my mouth twisted  and all .So I told Sooraj  about  my  facial paralysis and the doctor had asked me  to take rest. Sooraj said to take rest,that we can do the sequence later.I said no no absolutely not. I wanted to be a part of the shooting.That's why they gave me that Dharmendra’s drunken suicide scene  monologue  from Sholay to perform in the pass-the-pillow  scene. It  was not possible  for me to play straight drunk in a Rajshri film, so they gave me a part as drunken man.

Hum…Aapke  Hain Koun has not only been THE  blockbuster of  Anupam’s  life  it has also given him a philosophy of life. “Know your own fears and conquer them. Just recently I was shooting in Hyderabad and a young assistant came to me to say my  story gave  him so much of  courage.In today's time people are so paranoid and rightly this I am damn. If actors get a small pimple then they cancel the shooting But here my face became completely crooked. And about 3 to 6 months later  I had asked the doctor how will I know that I recover fully.He said, try whistling. When  you can whistle,you have recovered. Even now as a  habit I whistle every  morning.”

Defining the  importance of  Hum…Aapke Hain  Koun to  his  life  and career Anupam says, “Rajshri Productions  is my parent company.They gave me my first break Saaraansh  .Hum…Aapke Hain Koun  is a  cult film. Cult films are usually a  little dark, over the years  people  start liking it. But this one was an  immediate hit.It changed the way NRIs  do weddings,  it gave a direction to wedding of middleclass India. And unbelievable song, beautiful  song. I liked those songs because in foreign countries when we watch musicals in foreign movies, La La Land or whatever, we celebrate the musical genre.This was the first musical of ours.They completed it in one year. They took  the dates of  all artistes  for one year.So t there was no stress that I have to do this, I have to do that.Sooraj is  very  genuinely a nice person." 

Kher further said "Working in his films is like being in   a  temple.Hum…Aapke Hain Koun is not a film.It is an emotion. There were  no  artificial emotions .It was just pure  happiness.Very simple musical celebration  of middleclass joys.First big blockbuster biggest if not the biggest in the history of Indian cinema . But definitely one  of them. We are talking about 1994  when the economy  was something else.I remember when its previews were held,I came out and I told Raj Babu(Sooraj Barjatya’s father Raj Kumar  Barjatya), ‘This movie will be so popular that there will be a lathi charge in front of theatres.’ I had said this. Before the release, it was before the release, yes, yes, they did a preview for the cast and I had told them that this film  will not come down from the cinema halls. When it was  premiered  in Liberty, their reaction was it is a wedding video or whatever, there is no plot, there is nothing.It was like this and then suddenly after release in  Jaipur lathicharge happened."