''Khal Nayak'' () is a 1993 Indian

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

-language

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

crime film produced and directed by Subhash Ghai. The film's plot centers on the escape and attempted capture of criminal Ballu (

Sanjay Dutt Sanjay Balraj Dutt (born 29 July 1959) is an Indian actor who primarily works in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning over four decades, Dutt has won several accolades and acted in over 100 films, ranging from romance to comedy genres, though u ...

antihero An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine is a main character in a story who may lack conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, courage, and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform actions ...

) by Inspector Ram ( Jackie Shroff) and his cop girlfriend Ganga (

Madhuri Dixit Madhuri Dixit Nene (née Dixit; born 15 May 1967) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Hindi films. A leading actress of Indian cinema, she has appeared in over 70 films. Noted by critics for her beauty, dancing skills, and characters ...

). ''Khal Nayak'' is known for its music, especially the song "Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai", sung by Alka Yagnik and

Ila Arun Ila Arun is an Indian actress, TV personality and Rajasthani folk and folk-pop singer. She has appeared in many prominent Bollywood movies such as ''Lamhe'', ''Jodhaa Akbar'', ''Shaadi Ke Side Effects'' and ''Begum Jaan''. Personal life Arun ...

. The ''Khal Nayak'' soundtrack album sold 10million copies, making it one of the year's best-selling

Bollywood soundtrack Hindi film songs, more formally known as Hindi Geet or filmi songs and informally known as Bollywood music, are songs featured in Hindi films. Derived from the song-and-dance routines common in Indian films, Bollywood songs, along with da ...

albums, along with ''

Baazigar ''Baazigar'' () is a 1993 Indian romantic crime thriller film directed by Abbas–Mustan and produced by Venus Movies. It stars Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in lead roles, while Raakhee, Shilpa Shetty, Dalip Tahil, Siddharth Ray, and Johnny Le ...

''. ''Khal Nayak'' released on 6 August 1993, and became the second highest grossing Hindi film of 1993, surpassed only by ''Aankhen''. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its screenplay, soundtrack and performances of the cast. At the

39th Filmfare Awards The 39th Filmfare Awards were held in 1994. ''Khalnayak'' led the ceremony with 11 nominations, followed by ''Baazigar'' and ''Darr'' with 10 nominations each. ''Baazigar'' and ''Damini'' were the most awarded films with 4 awards each, with t ...

, ''Khal Nayak'' received a leading 11 nominations, including

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

(Ghai), Best Actor (Dutt),

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

(Dixit) and Best Supporting Actor (Shroff), and won 2 awards – Best Female Playback Singer ( Alka Yagnik and

) and Best Choreography (

Saroj Khan Saroj Khan (born Nirmala Nagpal; 22 November 1948 – 3 July 2020) was an Indian dance choreographer in Hindi cinema. She was born in Bombay State (present day Maharashtra), India. She was best known for the dance form mujra and the firs ...

), both for the song "Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai".

Plot

Balram "Ballu" Prasad, a gangster gets arrested by Inspector Ram, who shows compassion to Ballu while trying to receive information that would lead to the capture of Ballu's mentor Roshida. However, Ballu doesn't speak and later promises to escape from prison. While visiting his officer girlfriend Ganga, Ram learns that Ballu has escaped from prison and his reputation is in tatters as the media portrays him as an duty-neglected officer. In an attempt to restore Ram's reputation, Ganga goes

undercover To go "undercover" (that is, to go on an undercover operation) is to avoid detection by the object of one's observation, and especially to disguise one's own identity (or use an assumed identity) for the purposes of gaining the trust of an ind ...

as a street-girl, and realizes that Ballu is a kind-hearted person, who turned to crime business due to poverty and circumstances, and tries to rehabilitate him while on the run. Meanwhile, Ballu begins to fall in love with Ganga, but becomes enraged when he finds out she doesn't love him and is a cop. Ganga continues to help Ballu as she has seen good in him. Meanwhile, Ram approaches Ballu's mother for help and realises that Ballu is actually his childhood friend. Ballu's mother and Ballu reveals that Roshan Da used their poverty to corrupt Ballu and had killed Ballu's sister where he placed the blame on the cops. Enraged, Ballu kills the officer thus gets spiraled into a life of crime. Afraid that the police will kill Ballu, Ganga stops the police from shooting him, allowing him to escape, where she is arrested for aiding a criminal and is accused of being in a relationship with Ballu, which destroys her professional and personal reputation. Ballu's mother finds him, while she is followed by Ram. In the following confrontation, Ballu's mother takes Ram's side trying to convince Ballu to surrender. Seeing Ganga's picture in Ram's wallet, Ballu realizes that Ram is the one who she loves and manages to escape to Roshan Da's base where Roshan Da promises to help him escape, but betrays him and attempts to kill him and his mother. Under the leadership of Ram, the cops attack Roshan Da's lair. In the ensuing conflict, Ballu finds out that Roshan Da killed his sister, where Ram kills Roshan Da and Ballu escapes. Following Roshan Da's death, Ballu claims himself as the new boss, but his girlfriend informs him that Ganga is about to go on trial for aiding him. Having a change of heart, Ballu surrenders himself and swears that Ganga is innocent, thereby restoring her reputation and reconciling her and Ram and Ballu goes to prison.

Cast

as Balaram "Ballu" Prasad *

as Inspector Gangotri "Ganga" Agnihotri * Jackie Shroff as Inspector Ram Kumar Sinha * Anupam Kher as Ishwar Pandey *

Rakhee Gulzar Raakhee Gulzar (born Rakhee Majumdar on 15 August 1947 and known as Raakhee) is an Indian actress who has appeared in many Hindi films and Bengali films as well. In four decades of acting, she has won three Filmfare Awards and one National Film ...

as Aarti Prasad,Ballu's Mother * Siddharth Randeria as Navin Prasad , Public Prosecutor Lawyer , Ballu's Father * Aloka Mukherjee as Sunita Prasad ,Ballu's Sister *

Ramya Krishna Ramya Krishnan (born 15 September 1970), also credited as Ramya Krishna (in the Telugu and Kannada film industries) is an Indian actress. She has appeared in over 260 films in five languages: Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi. Ram ...

as Sophia Sulochana *

Pramod Moutho Pramod Moutho (born 7 May 1955) is an Indian film and television actor. He has appeared as a villain in number of noted Bollywood films, like '' Khalnayak'' (1993), '' Dilwale'' (1994), ''Raja Hindustani'' (1996), '' Mehndi'' (1998), Gadar'' ...

as Roshan Mahanta * Sushmita Mukherjee as Mrs. Maithili Pandey * Navtej Hundal *

Arun Bali Arun Bali (23 December 1942 – 7 October 2022) was an Indian actor who has worked in numerous films and television series. He played the part of King Porus in the 1991 period drama ''Chanakya'', Kunwar Singh in the Doordarshan soap opera '' ...

as Police Commissioner Kuljeet Chaddha * Anand Balraj as Police Inspector * A. K. Hangal as Shaukat Bhai *

Sudhir Dalvi Sudhir Dalvi is an Indian actor. He first came to prominence for portraying Guru Vashishta in Ramanand Sagar's TV series ''Ramayan'' and is well known for his role as Sai Baba. He also acted as Sai Baba in Manoj Kumar's feature film '' Shirdi ...

as Shambhu Master, Village School Teacher. (special appearance) *

Neena Gupta Neena Gupta (born 4 June 1959) is an Indian actress and television director who works in Hindi films and television. Known for her work in both art-house and commercial films, she won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for pl ...

as Champa, a dancer in the song "Choli Ke Peeche" * Ali Asgar as Munna * Sunil Shende as Judge (Last Scene of Movie) * Hans Dev Sharma as Investigation Officer assistant to Ram Kumar Sinha.

Awards

: Won * Best Female Playback Singer – Alka Yagnik and

for "Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai" * Best Choreography –

for "Choli Ke Peeche" ;Nominated *

– Subhash Ghai * Best Actor –

–

* Best Supporting Actor – Jackie Shroff * Best Music Director –

Laxmikant–Pyarelal Laxmikant–Pyarelal were an Indian composer duo, consisting of Laxmikant Shantaram Patil Kudalkar (1937–1998) and Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma (born 1940). He is known by the nickname “Pyromaniac” due to his flaming style of music. Laxmikan ...

* Best Lyricist – Anand Bakshi for "Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai" * Best Male Playback Singer –

Vinod Rathod Vinod Rathod (born 12 September 1962) is an Indian playback singer who primarily sings in Bollywood films. Rathod is the son of late classical musician, Pandit Chaturbhuj Rathod. Music career His career started when Usha Khanna after listeni ...

for "Nayak Nahin Khal Nayak Hoon Main" * Best Female Playback Singer – Alka Yagnik for "Paalki Pe Ho Ke Sawaar"

Music

The music was composed by

, with the lyrics being penned by Anand Bakshi. The best known song from the soundtrack were "Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai", "Palki Mein Hoke Sawar" and "Nayak Nahi Khal Nayak". The ''Khal Nayak'' soundtrack album sold 10million copies, making it one of the year's best-selling

albums, along with ''

''.

Box office

''Khal Nayak'' was the second highest grossing Hindi film of 1993, surpassed only by ''Aankhen''.

Remakes

The film was remade in Telugu as ''Khaidi No. 1'', and in Tamil as ''Hero'' (1994).

References

External links

*
''Mumbai Mirror'' – "When the Bad Guy Ruled the Box Office"
{{Subhash Ghai 1993 films 1990s Hindi-language films Indian crime action films 1990s masala films 1990s crime action films Films scored by Laxmikant–Pyarelal Films directed by Subhash Ghai Hindi films remade in other languages Films about terrorism in India Indian prison films