Darr

''Darr: A Violent Love Story'' (; ''Fear'') is a 1993 Indian Hindi-language psychological thriller film directed and produced by Yash Chopra under his banner Yash Raj Films. It stars Sunny Deol and Juhi Chawla in lead roles with Shah Rukh Khan as the antagonist. Annu Kapoor, Tanvi Azmi, Anupam Kher and Dalip Tahil play supporting roles. In the film, Kiran Awasthi (Chawla) is hounded by a creepy stalker Rahul Mehra (Khan), who goes berserk when she gets engaged to Sunil Malhotra (Deol), a navy officer, and decides to forcefully claim Kiran for himself.

''Darr'' released on 24 December 1993, coinciding with the Christmas weekend, and emerged as a major commercial success and was declared a blockbuster at the box-office. The film ranked as the third highest-grossing Hindi film of the year and the highest-grossing Indian film of the year in overseas markets. It received widespread critical acclaim upon release, with high praise for the direction, story, screenplay, soundtrack, cinematography, costumes and the performances of the cast.

''Darr'' proved to be a milestone for both Chawla and Khan's careers, catapulting them to superstardom. The film emerged as Chawla's fourth consecutive commercial success that year, thus solidifying her career as a leading lady in the 1990s, while Khan's portrayal of an obsessive lover was widely applauded by critics and audiences alike.

''Darr'' won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment at the 41st National Film Awards. The film received 10 nominations at the 39th Filmfare Awards, including Best Film, Best Director (Chopra), Best Actor (Deol), Best Actress (Chawla) and Best Villain (Khan), and won two awards: Best Comedian (Kher), and Best Cinematography.

Plot

Kiran Awasthi, a beautiful college student, visits her brother Vijay and his wife Poonam upon her return home. Rahul Mehra, her classmate who is in love with her, is relentlessly following her. An SF officer in the Indian Navy named Lieutenant Sunil Malhotra is Kiran's boyfriend. His Commanding Officer Captain Avinash Mehra, is Rahul's father.

Rahul makes an effort to be friendly with Sunil in order to be near Kiran. Rahul keeps calling her when she gets home and asks her to avoid Sunil, but despite her fear, she rejects Rahul's authority over her. She and her family are frightened when he visits her on both her birthday and Holi. Kiran and Sunil become engaged thanks to Vijay and Poonam, who think the stalker would never bother Kiran again.

Upon learning this, a furious Rahul attempts to murder Sunil but is unsuccessful. When Sunil is chasing Rahul, he doesn't know that the stalker is Rahul, he has an accident and is taken to the hospital. Kiran chooses to flee the city so that the stalker won't harm her beloved any longer but is apprehended by Sunil, who marries her that very night. Rahul is attacked by this and vows to take Kiran for himself. He kills the police officers sent to protect the couple and vandalizes their new home with graffiti reading "" (Congrats on your marriage, Kiran) and "'" (You are mine, Kiran).

This horrifies Kiran, who worries that she might lose her mind. Sunil decides to take Kiran on a surprise honeymoon to Switzerland while booking extra tickets to Goa, so that the stalker goes away by misunderstanding that the couple is in Goa. Rahul falls for the trick and looks everywhere for Kiran in Goa in vain, but couldn't find her. Instead, he meets Vikram "Vicky" Oberoi, a friend from college, who is ill. Rahul then makes an effort to get to know Kiran's brother and sister-in-law by paying them daily visits to learn about Kiran's location.

Vicky calls Rahul and invites him to meet him. When he does, he discovers him on his deathbed, pleading with Rahul to kill him since he can no longer bear the anguish. After a brief pause, he kills his companion while creating the illusion that Vicky was the stalker. Kiran's family believes the stalker killed himself after failing to find Kiran and relax. Rahul is informed of her true whereabouts, and he shows up at her hotel.

He is acknowledged by Kiran and Sunil, who invite him to join their celebrations. However, Sunil learns that Rahul was Kiran's stalker when Vijay calls him and says that Rahul had been visiting him and Poonam but not mentioned he was going to Switzerland. Sunil sends Kiran to wait for him at a boat, before luring Rahul to the forest and attacking him. Rahul begs for mercy, stabs Sunil and then abandons him to perish. Later, as Rahul arrives at the boat, he tries to marry Kiran without her will and informs her that Sunil has died. Despite her pleading and begging, he hands her his mother's old saree and orders her to wear it.

Kiran locks herself in a room in the boat. When the boat's door is smashed and Kiran is yanked back out by Rahul and agrees to marry Rahul, then it is discovered that Sunil didn't actually die and he returns to save Kiran. Enraged, Sunil brutally fights Rahul and ends up shooting him thrice, killing him. As Rahul dies, he pleads to Kiran not to hate him anymore. Kiran and Sunil return to India and visit their relatives once again.

Cast

* Sunny Deol as Lieutenant Sunil Malhotra, an SF Officer in the Indian Navy and Kiran's husband
*Juhi Chawla as Kiran Awasthi, Sunil's wife
*Shah Rukh Khan as Rahul Mehra, Kiran's obsessive lover and stalker.
* Annu Kapoor as Vikram "Vicky" Oberoi, Rahul's friend.
* Tanvi Azmi as Poonam Awasthi, Kiran's sister-in-law.
* Dalip Tahil as Captain Avinash Mehra, Rahul's father and Sunil's superior in the Indian Navy.
* Anupam Kher as Vijay Awasthi, Kiran's brother
*Piloo J. Wadia as the irritated hotel manager
* Vikas Anand as the psychiatrist

Production

Raveena Tandon was the first choice of Kiran, Deepak Malhotra essaying Sunil and Saahil Chadha playing the role of Rahul, but Yash Chopra decided to take over the project and eventually changed the casting.

Sridevi, who had previously collaborated with Chopra in '' Chandni'' (1989) and '' Lamhe'' (1991), was approached for the role of Kiran. The role was planned much like her previous roles in ''Chandni'' and ''Lamhe''. However, she wanted Kiran to be the obsessed lover instead of the victim; Chopra refused this change of plot, which caused Sridevi to opt out. Madhuri Dixit was the next choice, but she refused. Aishwarya Rai was screen tested for the role, but did not make the cut. Divya Bharti was then signed.

Rishi Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty and Jackie Shroff were offered the role of Sunil, but they refused. Nitish Bharadwaj was then approached for Sunil's role, due to his popularity as Lord Krishna in B. R. Chopra's '' Mahabharat''. Bharadwaj rejected the role as he felt the role was not challenging enough. The role eventually went to Sunny Deol, who had earlier been offered the role of the antagonist. Deol had declined it, believing that a negative role would be a risk to his career.

Sanjay Dutt was the original choice of the role of antagonist Rahul, but Chopra was unable to finalise 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. The role was then offered to Ajay Devgn who turned the role down due to other commitments.

Aamir Khan, who had previously worked with Chopra on '' Parampara'' the same year, was signed as Rahul. Chopra replaced Bharti with Juhi Chawla at Khan's request. However, problems arose when Khan asked Chopra for a joint narration of the script with him and Sunny Deol. Khan's reasoning for this was that since he and Deol were two leading actors, they could hear their roles and if they were both satisfied, no ego hassles would happen henceforth. However, Chopra refused to heed to such a request. Khan was also unhappy with the way Deol's character beat Rahul up in the film's climax. Khan was then removed from the project. Ironically, after the release of the film, Deol was miffed as he felt that the other male lead’s role was given more weightage than his, thus pledging to never work with Chopra and his banner again.

After Aamir Khan was removed from the film, Shah Rukh Khan was cast as Rahul after Aditya Chopra had watched his debut performance in '' Deewana'' and suggested his name. ''Darr'' after Aditya Chopra ended up catapulting him to stardom, and he went on to star in all of Chopra's future directorial ventures.

The film's title ''Darr'' was suggested to Chopra by his younger son Uday Chopra (who was also an assistant director in the film) and actor Hrithik Roshan.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for ''Darr'' was composed by the duo Shiv-Hari ( Shiv Kumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia) and written by Anand Bakshi.

It was the second best-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of the year, being surpassed only by '' Baazigar'' (which also starred Shah Rukh Khan). The soundtrack album sold about 4.5million units in India, earning at least . Rakesh Budhu of ''Planet Bollywood'' in his review gave the album 8.5 stars out of 10.

''Darrs soundtrack marked one of the earliest instances of Udit Narayan supplying his voice for Shah Rukh Khan. Narayan's voice went on to be featured in the soundtracks of every single one of Khan's collaborations with Yash Raj Films until '' Veer-Zaara'' (2004).

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 $500,000 (5.58crore). Worldwide, it grossed , equivalent to when adjusted for inflation .

Awards

Remakes

It was remade in Kannada as '' Preethse'', starring Upendra as Chandu (Rahul), Shiva Rajkumar as Surya (Sunil) and Sonali Bendre playing Kiran. The film also partially inspired the 2005 Tamil film '' Chinna''. The Telugu film ''Tapassu'' also borrowed some scenes from ''Darr''.

The teaser trailer for an intended five-part web series ''Darr 2.0'' was released on YouTube on August 30, 2016. It was set to be a retelling of the film in a contemporary setting, portraying cyber-stalking and digital crimes. The web series was set to be produced by Ashish Chopra under the banner of Y-Films and directed by Vikash Chandra. Screenplay and dialogues are by Nikhil Taneja and Shubham Yogi. The series was shelved.

Legacy

Audience and the critics appreciated Shah Rukh Khan's dialogue: "I love you, K-k-k- Kiran" and it still remains iconic.

Notes

References

Further reading

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External links

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{{Yash Chopra

1993 films
1990s Hindi-language films
1993 psychological thriller films
1990s chase films
1990s romantic thriller films
Films scored by Shiv-Hari
Films directed by Yash Chopra
Hindi films remade in other languages
Indian romantic thriller films
Indian psychological thriller films
Indian chase films
Yash Raj Films films
Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment National Film Award winners
Films shot in Switzerland
Films about fear
Films about stalking
Films about home invasion
Films set in Switzerland
Indian Navy in films
Films set in Goa
Indian crime thriller films
Indian films about revenge
Films set on boats
Hindi-language romantic thriller films