How Himmatwali Sridevi Hijacked The Box-Office!
Here's remembering the effect that the diva Sridevi's Himmatwala had over the audiences, how it brought back the public to theatres and lots more...
1983 was the year when Bollywood was reeling under video
piracy and major box- office failures. Star sons like Kumar Gaurav, Sunny Deol
and Sanjay Dutt had been launched in the past two years, the lost-and-found
formula and multi-starrers were weaning out. Come 1983, everyone’s eyes were
transfixed on big hoardings of an upcoming film Himmatwala put across the city.
Who was that leather-clad girl?
Jeetendra And Sridevi In Himmatwala
The catch line was Watch Out For Sridevi.
And soon, we knew that a new super heroine had arrived
for the audiences- and they started going back to single cinema halls for the
their daily dose of movies.
Sridevi displaying her charms and dancing skills to the
tune of Bappi Lahiri’s numbers from “Naino mein Sapna“ to “Taki O Taki“
became the talk of town.
Sridevi In Naino Mein Sapna
Those PT drill dance steps, power-packed dialogues, comic
track of Amjad khan and Kader Khan, rhythmic beats of Bappida and the
unforgettable voice of Kishore kumar and Asha Bhosle--- it was all a package
waiting to be lapped up, or should I say devoured, in a big way.
Himmatwala, which released on Feb 25,.1983, went onto
become one of the biggest hits of that year. amassing about Rs 12 crore at the
box-office.
Sridevi Poses In Himmatwala Song
What followed was a spate of films like Tohfa, Justice
Chaudhary, Mawaali , Maqsad, Jaani Dost amongst others with the same formula
.especially with Jeetendra in his white pants riding riding back to success
with the next big star Sridevi.
Actually, Sridevi had made her first full-fledged debut
with the Hindi version of Solva Sawan opposite Amol Palekar--- but still many
feel that Himmatwala was her first splash. Such was the spell cast by K
Raghavendra Rao’s potboiler.
Sridevi And Jeetendra
FYI, Himmatwala was supposed to be being launched with
Rekha in the lead, \but for some reason Sridevi got the final nod over the
Bassera star.
Himmatwala became the benchmark for romance and comedy-
today referred to as romcom, and mind you, Jeetendra and Sridevi co-starred in
15 movies in the next 6 years.
Jeetendra has said in a recent interview, "Sridevi was one of my closest co-stars and we
did 15 movies together. She was an actor par excellence. What was even more
admirable about her was her dedication to the craft - she would keep rehearsing
a scene until she was fully satisfied with it. I had deep admiration for her
discipline towards her work," I used to be nervous whenever I would have
to dance with Sridevi. She was a fabulous dancer who would get the steps
perfectly, right at the first attempt while I had to keep doing rehearsals to
match up to her. I have so many beautiful memories of Sridevi. It's still so
difficult for me to come to terms with the fact that the woman, who ruled over
everyone's hearts with her shy smile and bright eyes, is no more."
Jeetendra Posing With Sridevi
Sridevi had shown Himmat.
She was the Himmatwala, err, Himmatwali.
Such Himmatwalis come once
in a generation. To say that we will miss her is an understatement.
Image Source: youtube/hindiflicks
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