4 Crore Rupee Budget
Anil Kapoor - Madhuri Dixit the biggest hit combination in Bollywood from 1988
Amrish Puri the top billed villain
Anupam Kher the second highest billed villain
Bappi Lahiri the top billed music director
After Beta - a blockbuster hit released barely a month ago
Two #1 Songs - Dil to Dil Hain & Yeh Zindagi hain ek Juaa on the top radio channels
Yet on 25 April 1992, Distributors left the Opera Theatre in Mumbai in DISMAY refusing to pay a cheque to buy the rights to distribute the film in their territories
This was the Prakash Mehra starrer - ZINDAGI EK JUAA
The film was deemed - TOO VIOLENT AND GANGSTER LIKE for its period
This was 1992
The Era of the Angry young man was over and the era of Young Love was beginning
Dil, Aashiqui, Saajan were the biggest blockbusters of the period pushing Bachchan out from the #1 position for the first time in many years
The Story of
- Two Rival Gangs who murdered each other regularly
- Madhuri Dixit getting addicted to Heroin and killing herself (Performing Brilliantly)
- Anil Kapoor ending up with 25 year life imprisonment
The Film just didn't add up
Distributors who went expecting a big success didn't even say “We will let you know”
The film was an INDIANIZED take on SCARFACE (1983) starring Al Pacino
It became the FIRST FILM that distributors across India refused to touch , the first for reasons not related to the 1975 emergency
Prakash Mehra made a deal with Theatres
He went personally and distributed the film to theatres who all demanded a Minimum 21 day run guarantee for the film
Prakash Mehra had been losing money for the past 5 years since 1987 , his Bachchan starrer Jaadugar had lost him ₹53 Lakh personally
He sold his Beach Bungalow (Next to Waheeda Rahmans)
The film took off very well
The First Friday saw an opening in Bombays Top 70 theatres - that beat the record of Beta (1992)
Bachchans Khuda Gawah was running across theatres and it's collections fell sharply as Zindagi ek Juaa was released
The first Monday saw a 80% drop
The First Monday Matinee Show saw a 80% Drop in the Top 70 theatres in Bombay
College Audiences still trickled in one's and twos
Khuda Gawah began picking up again as Bachchan made the LAST FILM announcement
Then something happened that ended the films ambitions completely
A 1 Crore Rupee , small budget film, shot entirely in Ooty gathered steam and knocked out the film completely
The film didn't even make it to a single nomination in 1993
Even though Madhuri had her finest performance , expressions - it was a role she wanted to forget
Suresh Oberoi , father of Vivek Oberoi, believed it was one of his best performances
Asha Bhonsle at the age of 59, sang a song that made her sound like a 20 year old in an era without Auto Tune
The Dance and Song are outstanding in every way
It wasn't until 1998 that GANGSTER CINEMA made a reappearance under the Aegis of the Legendary Ram Gopal Varma with Satya and Mahesh Manjrekar with Vaastav
This time they were both Massive hits and the distributors were not as squeamish