Filmmaker Rajiv Rai has directed a number of successful masala action films. One of them is Mohra, who recently turned 30. The film was a crime saga starring Aksay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Raveena Tandon and Naseeruddin Shah. As the film completes three decades, Rajiv Rai reminisces about the film in an interview.
30 years of Mohra: Rajiv Rai reveals, “I was shooting for 10-15 days with Divya Bharti, I had to shoot with Raveena Tandon”
Rajiv, your former business partner Shabbir Boxwala, is quoted as saying that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sridevi were offered the female lead in Mohra, before Raveena Tandon. This is true?
God no!!! Where did this come from?? I had non-star male characters, why would I think about big star characters? Sure, Raveena was a name, no doubt, but Sridevi was out of my league. Ravina never hesitated! why would he I ended up having her on one date and she was very polite and acted very professional the entire time!
Were all your actors in Mohra your first choice?
Divya Bharti passed away; He was my first choice. Suniel (Shetty) and Akshay (Kumar) were my first choices. Nasir (Nasiruddin Shah) was absolutely my top choice. I thought of him first and then the others and all the villains you see in the movie. I introduced Divya Bharti, don’t forget that Vishwat And it was Divya’s lip sync’Saath Samundar PaarAnd he became a star and I wasn’t sure if I would cast him in the next film. I was a bit reluctant and he didn’t want to leave the film and unfortunately, unfortunately and everyone, the whole industry was very disappointed and we still lost a great actor and star.
Did you actually shoot with Divya Bharti for Mohra?
Yes, I shot with him for 10-15 days. I had to shoot with Raveena Tandon but again, Raveena was my first choice considering Divya wasn’t there. I mean, Raveena wasn’t the first choice as such, but yeah, after Divya left us, I mean, it was my first choice, okay.
Actually, to be honest Subhash, after finishing a movie, you move on to the next movie and never think whether it is a flop or well done or average. You don’t think or live in the past, you will return here. You’re not trying to feel sorry for yourself or the movie. I wish I could do that.
Have you ever imagined Mohra so well?
Yes, these actors were quite new in those days. So I never imagined the film would do so well, but you know I’m an aggressive filmmaker. I give it my best shot. You know when I’m on the field I want to hit sixes. I mean, that’s my way of thinking. My movie might fail. You know, I’m not saying I’m sure about what I’m doing. It can be a hit or a miss because when you make a film, you take a big risk. Every story is a risk. The songs you record are a risk. So you never know where it’s going, whether the audience will accept it. Anyway, I never thought it would be a movie that people would remember. I never imagined but I hoped that the movie would do really well. Otherwise, why would I spend so much time and money? So inside I was kind of confident but scared at the same time.
Is it hard to believe that Mohra is 30 years old?
Yes, you can believe it! Well, it seems like thirty years Mohra. It seems like it was yesterday, I can’t imagine that thirty years have passed so quickly. I vividly remember everything as we shot it, planned it, and executed it, and it was more of a…
experimental?
I won’t use the word experimental but more of a film where I was making a commercial kind of material film with action, songs, emotions, drama, story and suspense. I tried to put everything in, but when I say experimental, I mean it didn’t have a very marketable star at the time. It wasn’t a big star movie, although it was a multi-starrer and it’s considered a multi-starrer, but to me it was more like… well, let’s make a movie with newcomers or people who are not top actors and try to make a successful movie with people who haven’t had big hits yet. .
You know of course Naseeruddin Shah was one of the backbones of the film and Raveena Tandon was experienced but Sunil was quite new. Akshay was still kind of struggling with his career and so was I… I always like to do films that have less popular star actors. So as you know other famous directors who have worked say Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn or others.
Obviously the audience remembers the music and that’s the main thing, but I believe the film was good in all departments if you ask me the truth. It was technically well shot. He had a very good cast of villains. He had very good music. It had some really interesting storylines and something different, and so I always try as much as possible to create something for the audience that’s a little bit different from what’s already come.
Viju Shah knocked it out of the park
Yes, this is very true. ‘Mast Mast’, ‘Tip Tip Barsa Paani’…, all the songs were good. “Na Kajre Ki Daar”, then “Subh Se Lekhe Sham Tak”, then you know, he had a proper musical bonanza, you know, he had a bunch of great songs. This is one of my best soundtracks and one of Viju’s best tracks. I owe a lot to Viju, he is my best friend, my brother.
We are, as they say, brothers in crime, we make music together and we always try to do something good, interesting, different and modern, you know, and at the same time has an Indian touch. . I won’t say the classical touch, but the melody, the Indian melody, mixed with a lot of electronics and sounds that normal people don’t understand and it takes a lot of work to do that. So yes, there was Viju, yes, he did a great job, no doubt. I mean, he was the hero of the movie, so to speak.
Where do you place Mohra and your repertoire? Is your most successful movie?
I think Tridev, Mohra and GuftAll three are very successful and rightly so Vishwat. So for me, I don’t judge my four or five successful films that I have done, but of course MohraI still think it might be, I’d say it’s at the top of my list. But then when I think about it TridevThen I get confused and sometimes when I think GuftI also get confused there because the music was different there.
Mohra really stands out
So with Mohra, I would say he had a little bit of everything and he had very strong music, very strong action and he had a lot of energy. So I’m putting it as my top movie or my top movie. I could say that, but I don’t want to because that would be unfair to the other films.
More pages: Mohra Box Office Collection
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