Who was Rani Padmavati?

Rani Padmavati or Padmini was a very beautiful and charming princess if Sinhaladweep (Sri Lanka) and wife of Rana Ratan Singh of Chittor.

Her story is narrated in a book called Padmavat written by Malik Jayasi. There is a lot of plot in the book but the gist is that Rani Padmini was a strong woman who did not let her spirits die when her husband was deceitfully captured by Khilji. She planned with Gora and Badal and they successfully brought back Ratansen while losing their lives eventually.

She along with Queen Nagmati committed Jauhar and Khilji entered in an empty Chittor where men had committed Saka and women had chosen dignity over atrocious slavery.

The story in Padmavat might be exaggerated and not totally accurate but there is no doubt that the warriors of chittor would never surrender their dignity in any way so Saka and Jauhar must be historically accurate.

What made "Jhansi ki Rani" such a big flop despite being the first technicolor film in Hindi cinema?

 Jhansi Ki Rani ( Queen of Jhansi) was a very expensive film at that time and was made with the budget of 6 million or 60 lakh at that time. The film was released in 1953. Shorab Modi had directed and produced the film. It was the first technicolor film made in India. But the film emerged as a big disaster film due to some reasons.

The first and the main reason for the biggest failure for the film was that Shorab Modi had casted his wife Mehtab for the titular role of Lakshmibai. She had looked too old at the age of 35 years to portray the young queen Lakshmibai who was half of her age.

Though the film got highly praised for its direction, expensive sets and war scenes, first technicolor film and to spend liberally for technicians but they blamed Sohrab for casting his wife for Lakshmibai's role. Sohrab Modi himself appeared in the prominent role of Rajguru besides Mehtab.

The second reason for the failure was its high budget. Its very high budget couldn't make it a hit film.

Shorab Modi had brought Hollywood technicians for technical aspects, he did the film accurately with the historical details. The main cinemotographer who assisted the film was the Oscar winner Ernest Haller. Russell Lloyd from England was the editor.

Jhansi Ki Rani was also released in the US with the title The Tiger and The Flame in 1956. The English version had no songs.

The 3rd reason was that it was not like a typical Hindi cinema of that time. The audience got disappointed due to its lack of melodramatic moments that is lack in emotional and sentimental moments that the Indian audience typically expect.

The 4th reason was, there were no impressive songs which play a very prominent role in the success of any film and the songs didn't get popularity among the audience.

The 5th reason was that the historical context of the film was not fully appreciated by the westren audience in the English dubbed version.

The big failure of the film made Shorab Modi to face big financial crisis.