Darr


Darr: A Violent Love Story is a 1993 Indian romance thriller movie directed and produced by Yash Chopra through the studio Yash Raj Films. The film stars Sunny Deol, Juhi Chawla and Shah Rukh Khan, while Anupam Kher, Tanvi Azmi and Dalip Tahil appear in supporting roles.
Darr was later remade in Kannada as Preethse and in Tamil as Chinna. Darr has won several accolades, including the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. The film received ten nominations at the 39th Filmfare Awards, including Best Director for Chopra, Best Actress for Chawla, Best Actor for Deol, and Best Villain for Khan, and won two awards, including Best Comedian for Kher.

Plot

The film begins with Kiran, a beautiful college student, returning home to her brother Vijay and his wife Poonam for Holi celebrations. She is being obsessively stalked along the way by Rahul, her classmate who has a crush on her. Kiran's boyfriend Sunil is a Navy-Marine Commando officer and is on a mission to free a child hostage from some terrorists on the high seas. Sunil saves the child hostage. Sunil's Captain Mehra is also the father of Rahul. Rahul tries to be friendly with Sunil in order to be closer to Kiran.
When Kiran reaches home, she is continually stalked by Rahul on the phone. This causes much stress to herself and her family. He crashes Kiran's family's Holi celebrations incognito as a member of the band. Sunil asks Kiran to offer the band some money for their performance, where Rahul, veiled in Holi colours, whispers "I love you, K-K-K-Kiran" to Kiran, which disturbs her greatly and a foot chase ensues to find the hooligan who has invaded their house, but Rahul soon disappears into the crowd.
When Rahul receives the news of Kiran and Sunil's engagement, he tries to shoot and kill Sunil when the couple is out shopping for a wedding ring. He misses his aim and Sunil begins to chase him, from which Rahul narrowly escapes being unrecognized by Sunil.
Kiran and Sunil get married but Rahul still refuses to give up on Kiran. He kills the two cops assigned for their protection and defaces the newly married couple's home with graffiti that declares his love and which causes them more distress. To get away from the stalker, Sunil takes Kiran on a surprise honeymoon to Switzerland. Learning their location through devious means, Rahul turns up at their hotel in the Alps. Kiran recognizes him from college and the couple welcomes him to be part of their festivities. That very evening, Sunil finds out from Kiran's brother Vijay that Rahul is the one who has been Kiran's stalker all along. He sends Kiran away on a boat and confronts Rahul. Rahul tries to run, but Sunil catches up with him in a forest where they have a fight. Rahul stabs Sunil with a knife after feigning surrender and leaves him for dead. He then goes to the boat and tries to forcefully abduct Kiran, he wants to marry Kiran without her consent. But Sunil comes back and brutally beats him before shooting and killing him. Kiran and Sunil then return to India and reunite with their family.

Cast

ActorCharacterDescription
Sunny DeolLieutenant Commander Sunil MalhotraMale Lead
Juhi ChawlaKiran Awasthi/MalhotraFemale Lead
Shah Rukh KhanRahul MehraMale Lead
Anupam KherVijay AwasthiKiran's Elder Brother
Tanvi AzmiPoonam AwasthiKiran's Sister-In-Law and Vijay's Wife
Dalip TahilCaptain Avinash MehraRahul's Father and Sunil's Boss
Annu KapoorVikram Oberoi Rahul's Friend
Vikas AnandDr. Ajay Gupta

Production

The film was inspired by the 1991 American film Cape Fear. Sanjay Dutt was the original choice of the role of antagonist Rahul, but Chopra was unable to finalize him because of his jail sentence due to illegal possession of arms. Sudesh Berry was then considered for the role, but was rejected after a screen test. Ajay Devgan was offered the role of Rahul, but he could not accept due to other commitments.
Later on, Aamir Khan was cast as Rahul. Khan later had other issues with the filming as he was not happy with the way Deol's character repeatedly punched his character in a fight sequence. He was further discontented when Chopra selected Divya Bharti for the female lead. Therefore, he opted out of the film although Divya was later replaced by Juhi Chawla.
After Aamir Khan left the film, Shah Rukh Khan was cast as Rahul. Darr helped bring Shah Rukh Khan to stardom and he went on to star in all of Chopra's films. Rishi Kapoor and Jackie Shroff were offered Sunil's role before Sunny Deol. Mithun Chakraborthy was also a strong contender for Sunil's role along with Rishi Kapoor and Jackie Shroff.
Sridevi, who had worked with Chopra in his previous two films, was original choice for role of Kiran. Role was crafted and planned much like her role in Chandni. This could be observed in movie infact Chopra admitted dressing Kiran like Chandni. But Sridevi refused to accept the role as it was. She instead wanted Kiran's character to be obsessed lover but Chopra did not agree to that. After Sridevi, role was offered to Raveena Tandon, who refused because of swimsuit requirement by Chopra.
Nitish Bharadwaj was approached for Sunil's role after Rishi Kapoor and Jackie Shroff rejected the role. This is because of his immense popularity as Lord Krishna's role in B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat. But Nitish rejected the role claiming that the role is not as challenging as it would be.
The film's title Darr was suggested to Yash Chopra by Hrithik Roshan and Uday Chopra.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Darr was composed by the duo Shiv-Hari. It was the second best-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of the year. The soundtrack album sold about 4.5million units in India, earning at least. Rakesh Budhu of Planet Bollywood in his review gave the album 7.5 stars out of 10.

Box office

At the domestic Indian box office, Darr became the third highest-grossing film of 1993, after Aankhen and Khalnayak, and was declared a blockbuster. In India, it was released on 190 screens, with 19.96million tickets sold. Its domestic gross was 15.73crore, including a net income of 10.74crore, which is equivalent to when adjusted for inflation. Its domestic gross is equivalent to when adjusted for inflation.
At the overseas box office, Darr was the year's highest-grossing Indian film of 1993, grossing 5.58crore. Worldwide, it grossed 21.31crore, equivalent to when adjusted for inflation.

Remakes

Darr was remade in Kannada as Preethse, starring Upendra as Chandu Shiva Rajkumar as Surya and Bollywood actress Sonali Bendre playing Kiran. The film also partially inspired the 2005 Tamil Chinna, starring Arjun Sarja and Sneha in lead roles. The Telugu film Tapassu also borrowed some scenes from Darr.
The teaser trailer of five-part web series Darr 2.0 was released on YouTube on August 30, 2016. It is to be a retelling of the film in a contemporary setting, portraying cyber-stalking and digital crimes. The web series is produced by Ashish Chopra under the banner of Y-Films and is directed by Vikash Chandra. Screenplay and dialogues are by Nikhil Taneja and Shubham Yogi.

Awards

AwardCategoryNomineeResultReferences
National Film Awards 1993National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome EntertainmentYash Chopra
39th Filmfare AwardsBest ComedianAnupam Kher
39th Filmfare AwardsBest CinematographerManmohan Singh
39th Filmfare AwardsBest FilmYash Chopra
39th Filmfare AwardsBest DirectorYash Chopra
39th Filmfare AwardsBest ActressJuhi Chawla
39th Filmfare AwardsBest ActorSunny Deol
39th Filmfare AwardsBest VillainShahrukh Khan
39th Filmfare AwardsBest Music DirectorShiv-Hari
39th Filmfare AwardsBest LyricsAnand Bakshi for "Jaadu Teri Nazar"
39th Filmfare AwardsBest Male Playback SingerUdit Narayan for "Jaadu Teri Nazar"