Amar and Prem are two daydreamers with a common aim: getting rich by marrying a rich heiress, Raveena Bajaj, daughter of the wealthy Ram Gopal Bajaj. Raveena travels to India with her secretary and friend, Karishma. She's in India to find a suitable groom. The men run into each other on a bus bound for Ooty, where Raveena lives, and soon realise that they have a common goal. The two then fail at various attempts to woo the woman. Meanwhile, they decide to insinuate themselves in her house. Amar pretends to be a man who has lost his memory after getting hit by Raveena, while Prem pretends to be a doctor. The boys do not know that Raveena and Karishma switched identities. The secretary "Karishma" is the real Raveena while the rich heiress "Raveena" is actually Karishma. Raveena switched her identity because she wanted to find a boy who will love her, not her money. Nobody is aware that Ram Gopal has a twin brother called Shyam Gopal Bajaj, alias Teja. Teja is a criminal who has taken much money from Crime Master Gogo. Teja hopes to land the riches himself by kidnapping his brother and posing as Ram. He has also planted his cronies Robert and Bhalla in the household. Robert and Bhalla attempt to kill Raveena multiple times to no success. Ram arrives in India and Teja plans to steal Ram's money converted in diamonds. Ram sees through the real nature of Amar and Prem, thus declining Raveena's marriage to either of them. The duo plan to fake a kidnapping where they will heroically "rescue" Ram. Unknown to them, Teja has also planned to kidnap Ram. Teja succeeds in having Ram kidnapped. Amar and Prem go to rescue Ram, but Teja makes them believe that he is Ram and enters Ram's household. Initially, nobody suspects a thing, but the girls soon smell a rat. The boys have discovered the real identities of the girls. Prem has fallen for the real Raveena, while Amar has fallen for the real Karishma. The girls tell their suspicions to the boys. The boys tail Teja and soon find out the truth. Here, Ram tricks Teja and escapes the prison. However, the boys mistake him for Teja, resulting in Ram being imprisoned again – with Amar and Prem. However, Amar and Prem succeed in convincing Robert and Bhalla that Ram is Teja. The boys, along with Robert and Bhalla, stop Teja. Meanwhile, throughout the film, Robert and Bhalla are constantly harassed by Gogo who's demanding his money back. He soon discovers about the diamonds and kidnaps Ram along with Raveena and Karishma. At Gogo's lair, the boys try to control the situation along with Ram. In a comic standoff, the real motive of each villain is revealed. However, due to the smartness of the boys, police raid Gogo's lair, thus rounding up all the criminals. Ram gets his diamonds back and finally decides to let Karishma and Raveena marry Prem and Amar.
Cast and crew
Cast
Aamir Khan as Amar Manohar
Salman Khan as Prem Bhopali
Raveena Tandon as Raveena / Karishma
Karisma Kapoor as Karishma / Raveena Bajaj
Paresh Rawal as Shyam Gopal "Teja" Bajaj and Ram Gopal Bajaj
The film's producer Vinay Sinha approached writer-director Rajkumar Santoshi with the idea of making a film with Aamir Khan. Having made two back-to-back serious films like Ghayal and Damini – Lightning, Santoshi wanted to make a comedy film. It was then decided that he would script a funny film about two warring buddies, the human versions of Tom and Jerry. He then decided to bring Salman Khan to the party followed by then relative newcomers Karishma Kapoor and Raveena Tandon as the female leads along with Paresh Rawal in a double role. Santoshi started writing the script after the casting. Initially Salman Khan wanted more screen space than the other, but later agreed to have the same amount of screen time. Tinnu Anand was offered the role of the villain "Gogo", but could not do it because of date issues. It eventually went to Shakti Kapoor. The Muhurat shot was done by Dharmendra in October 1990.Andaz Apna Apna took almost four years to complete, and was signed by both leading ladies before their first films were even released in 1991. Several scenes were improvised by the actors on set.
Reception
It's hard to believe but the film didn't do well at box-office upon its release. it was able to recover its budget cost mainly due to business from big cities, but did not turn out to be a success contrary to everyone's expectations. It earned an excess of nett in India. Its total domestic gross was, and its overseas gross was $150,000, bringing its worldwide gross to.. It was released on the very next day of Diwali with another 3 films. The lack of publicity and clashed with another 3 released on same day were reasons for its average business. Other 2 films except Udhaar Ki Zindagi were very strong in their box office presence and Andaz Apna Apna, belonging to a different genre, could not compete well. It has however, in subsequent years, achieved a cult classic status among Hindi audiences. Several dialogues from this film like "Teja main hu. Mark Idhar hai", "Crime Master Gogo, Mogambo ka Bhatija", "Do dost ek cup me chay piyenge" etc., are popular. It went on to be an inspiration for the plot element of the Tamil film Ullathai Allitha, the Telugu film Veedevadandi Babu and the Kannada filmGalate Aliyandru. It was also reported that the climax of 1973 film Victoria No. 203, including the set and the action, was shot-to-shot copied in this film. While reviewing Grand Masti in 2013, critic Khalid Mohamed described Andaz Apna Apna in the "collection of excellent comedies" from Hindi cinema. Film critic Raja Sen called it a "cornball classic" and "one of the greatest comedies in recent times." In 2014, comedian Aditi Mittal wrote: "Writing about Andaz Apna Apna, I have realised, is like writing about mother’s love. Everyone has their own version of how it affects them, what lines they remember the most."
Soundtrack
The film has four songs composed by Tushar Bhatia with lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri.
Remakes
The plot elements of the film were used in many languages as Ullathai Allitha, Veedevadandi Babu and Galate Aliyandru. Andaz Naya Naya is a Bollywood animated 3D film, which is an official remake of Andaz Apna Apna, but it has been shelved due to unknown reasons. Producer Sidharth Jain began to question if the film would do any good at the box office because Indian animated films do not get good market, so Jain shelved the film after being 35% done.
