24 Years Of Raja Hindustani: Dharmesh Darshan Talks About Aamir Khan & Karisma Kapoor’s Kissing Scene
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Dharmesh Darshan’s romantic drama film Raja Hindustani was released in 1996. The film is now considered to one of the most commercially successful Hindi film of the 1990s. It’s the story of a cab driver from Palankhet-an orphan who goes by the name of ‘Raja Hindustani‘ who falls in love with a rich young woman.
Aamir Khan and Karishma Kapoor play the lead roles in the film, which was inspired from 1956 film Jab Jab Phool Khile. The film’s music was composed by Nadeem-Shravan and the lyrics were written by Sameer. The film has won five Filmfare awards.
As reported by Mumbai Mirror, author and retired professor of Indian Culture said, “It propagated that everyone, no matter how modest his upbringing, has the right to dream, and make that dream his own. Perhaps that’s why it still resonates with people not just across the country, but across the world,” asserts the film’s writer-director.”
Dharmesh Darshan’s directorial Raja Hindustani had the longest kiss in Hindi films at the time between Aamir Khan and Karishma Kapoor. The report added that the filmmaker had kept it a little extra at the behest of the producers, who were expecting some editing from the censors.
He said, “But they passed it with a ‘U’ certificate and not a single cut. Eventually, I voluntarily cut a few frames from the kiss because the market wanted the three hours-twenty-minutes film shortened by 20 minutes.”
Dharmesh Darshan also revealed that even though he didn’t mind shortening the kiss without it losing its impact, he was heartbroken to leave out a dramatic sequence in the film. The sequence was of Aamir Khan’s character Raja comes to the city to meet Aarti after learning that he has become a father. However, when he reaches her home, she wasn’t there. In spite of it, Raja barges into her room and after seeing the cot, toys and clothes, he breaks down. Sensing an opportunity to further drive a wedge between the couple, Aarti’s stepmother Shalu provokes Raja and when he hits out, has him beaten and thrown into a gutter, following which he kidnaps his child.
Talking about the sequence, Dharmesh said, “We’d shot the scene over five days and both Aamir and Archana (Puran Singh) as Shalu were terrific. When I went to Film City to tell Aamir I’d decided to leave it out, he started weeping. I told him that I should be crying too, since I’d written and directed it. But even without that scene, Aamir swept all the popular best actor awards. Maybe that might have won him a National Award.”
