21 Years Of Hum Aapke Hain Koun!
After “Maine Pyar Kiya”, Sooraj Barjatya had a writer’s block and could not decide on his next film, as per his father’s suggestion he started watching Rajshri Production’s earlier films. Sooraj Barjatya was impressed by Rajshri’s previous blockbuster “Nadiya Ke Paar” and he decided to adapt this movie in a contemporary way and that is how “Hum Aapke Hain Koun!” was written. Sooraj Barjatya wrote the screenplay as a musical, which resulted in 14 songs.
“Hum Aapke Hain Koun!” created history for Hindi cinema, and it saw a change in the way Film distribution was done in Bollywood. During the 90’s there was a drop in theater viewing due to cable network, video and piracy. Rajshri Productions wanted the audience to experience the movie in the Theaters hence theater owners who wanted to show “Hum Aapke Hain Koun!” had to upgrade their theaters like installing Optical Stereo sound system.
The film released on 5th Aug 1994 with only 26 prints all over India and Rajshri Production made adequate arrangements to avoid piracy of the movie. Later due to word of mouth and immense popularity of the movie, many other theater owners agreed to upgraded their theaters in order to exhibit the movie. The cost of the tickets were increased, but it did not deter people to watch the movie in the theater, this gave around 50% spike in audience coming to theaters to watch the movie.
“Hum Aapke Hain Koun!” also opened the potential of Bollywood movie in international market and catering to the NRI Diaspora. In London the movie ran for a year. The film gave way for glamorous family dramas.
The movie earned a gross revenue of over 1 billion making “Hum Aapke Hain Koun!”the first Indian movie to earn such high revenue . People flocked to see the movie multiple times and most of its revenue came from repeat business. The famous Painter M F Hussain saw the movie 85 times.
“Hum Aapke Hain Koun!” will always be remembered as a trendsetter for Indian Cinema…