Filmmaker-choreographer Farah Khan recently reflected on the atmosphere in Bollywood when he started his career in the early 1990s, recalling the time when Hindi cinema struggled with its image and the industry grappled with the shadow of the underworld.Speaking on a podcast hosted by Ranveer Allahbadia, Farah said that during her college days many people of her generation preferred Hollywood films and often looked down on Hindi cinema.“I will give you the context of where the film industry was in the early nineties. Earlier, we looked favorably on Hindi films in the 80s,” Farah said. “When we were in college, we only watched Saturday Night Fever and Dirty Dancing—Hollywood movies—and despised Hindi movies.”
“80s was the worst era for Hindi films”
Farah explained that the perception arose from the type of films being made in the 1980s.“You may not remember the 80s, but it was the worst era for Hindi films,” he said. “There were all these multi-hero films – Mithun-style or three-hero films. Dharmendra ji, Jeetendra ji, Shatrughan Sinha all came together, but you can’t even remember a particular film clearly.”He added that while many of these films are shared online as memes, the reality of the industry back then was very different.“They may be famous in the meme world right now, but it was a very different phase for Hindi cinema at that time,” he said.
‘Karan Johar he received one underground menace ‘
Farah also recalled how the film industry faced the growing influence of the underground in the 1990s.“We heard a lot about the underground stories of that era,” he said, adding that one particular event had a big impact. “I remember when I had just started my career—it must have been around 1993 or 1994—and the producer Mukesh Duggal was shot. That really shook everyone.”The filmmaker also revealed that even film premieres were not immune to such tensions at that time.“I remember at the premiere of Duplicate and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Karan received an underground threat. It was very scary,” he said. According to Farah, the threat led to serious debate over whether the premiere should go ahead or not.“Everyone was debating whether the premiere should be canceled or not. Security increased”, he recalled.Despite the tense atmosphere, the team finally decided to go ahead with the event.“We went ahead with the release, but Karan was very stressed. Imagine it’s your first film and instead of celebrating, you’re dealing with threats and worrying about security,” he said.
