When Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar & Kajol Came Together In A Yash Chopra Romantic Musical
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Back in 1994, Akshay Kumar had just started becoming popular in Bollywood. He had a hit film Khiladi behind him but there was still some time to go before he was considered as a bonafide star. Kajol too had just stepped into the industry, albeit with a hit Baazigar behind her and Saif Ali Khan was a newbie, though considered to be a promising chocolate boy hero.
This was the time when Yash Chopra decided to make a romantic musical entertainer with the trio. It was the time of action films ruling the roost and hence there was always a risk involved to make a triangular love story instead. Moreover, Yash Chopra had handed over the direction baton to first timer Naresh Malhotra. This wasn’t all as Uday Chopra, who was far away from making his acting debut, in fact started his career as a producer first as his name appeared in the credits here. The film in question was Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan’s Yeh Dillagi (1994).
However, it was the music that did the trick, and played a major role in creating very good awareness around the film. Composer duo Dileep Sen-Sameer Sen along with lyricist Sameer were at the top of the game and they came up with almost half a dozen chartbusters. Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan’s ‘Ole Ole’ led from the front and this was followed by ‘Lagi Lagi Hai Ye Dil Ki Lagi’, ‘Hothon Pe Bas’, ‘Dekho Zara Dekho’ and ‘Naam Kyaa Hai’ amongst others. Each of these songs was hugely popular much before release itself and audiences queued up in front of the theatres to have a dekko.
Made at a budget of just 2 crores, the film went on to net almost triple the investment from theatres, a very good return back then. The film had a fresh feel to it, with Akshay Kumar playing his part with utmost maturity, Kajol bringing on the spunk and Saif Ali Khan being his playful best.
This Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan starrer as a whole worked back then with youth as well as family audience to emerge as a solid hit. That said, though the songs are popular till date, especially ‘Ole Ole’, the film as a whole hasn’t enjoyed much of a shelf life or recall value. Still, back then it worked well for all involved and gave each of its three stars a lot to smile and cheer about as they got an early hit in their career.
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