Khalnayak turns 30: When Subhash Ghai claimed Sanjay Dutt-Madhuri Dixit-Jackie Shroff film lost National Award because of ‘Choli Ke Peeche’

Subhash Ghai's Khalnayak released 30 years amid much controversy but became one of the biggest hits of the year.

New Delhi | June 15, 2023 12:44 PM IST

3 min read

Subhash Ghai's Khalnayak starred Jackie Shroff, Madhuri Dixit and Sanjay Dutt.

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Sanjay Dutt starrer Khalnayak released in theatres 30 years ago and it was right around the time when Sanjay had been arrested for his alleged connections to the underworld and he was accused of being involved in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts. The movie was titled after his character playing the villain and the real world too, started to see him as the villain. The film became massively popular before its release due to the controversy around ‘Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai’ song and Subhash Ghai, who directed the film, had once claimed that Khalnayak lost out on its National Award because of this song. Picturised on Madhuri Dixit, this became one of her most popular dance numbers.

In an earlier chat, Ghai told Bollywood Hungama, “It was nominated for the National Award also. I lost on the National Award only because of ‘Choli Ke Peeche’ because it was a very controversial song.” The song’s lyrics by Anand Bakshi were seen as provocative by many organisations who tried to ban it but the film ultimately sold cassettes in record numbers. In fact, Ghai said they sold one crore cassettes in just one week.

Sanjay Dutt’s arrest before the release of the film also made the film grab headlines at the time and Ghai claimed that Sanjay was arrested on the same day that they had shot his character’s departure to jail in the movie. He said, “On the last day of the shoot, when we were shooting the scene that Ballu Balram (Dutt) is going to jail, he did the court scene, came back home, and that was the day he got arrested. That was only a month before the release.”

Also Read | Madhuri Dixit’s Choli Ke Peeche, which shocked India and faced bans, is actually a celebration of female desire

Ghai also recalled that Sanjay used to write him letters from the prison and shared that his co-prisoners demanded him to sing the film’s title song. “Sanjay has always been a dear friend of mine. And when he was in jail, he used to write letters to me. He always wrote that whenever he has to perform something for his co-prisoners, they always ask him to sing ‘Nayak Nahi Khalnayak Hun Main’ and all of them sing it together,” he said.

Subhash Ghai announced a sequel to Khalnayak in 2020 but there has been no update on that front yet.

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