When 'Maine Pyar Kiya' breathed life into dying cinema halls

Bollywood: In the 1980's when video piracy was killing the Indian film industry and people were reluctant to come into movie halls content with binge-watching films on portable video cassette recorders, a little- advertised movie ' Maine Pyar Kiya' made a low-profile entry in the last week of 1989. It had two new stars – Salman Khan and Bhagyashree – and nothing much more.

The producer of the film, Tarachand R Barjatya (1914-1992), whose Rajshri films had by then earned a name for family socials over nearly three decades was launching his grandson Sooraj Barjatya as the director. Tarachand's earlier films in the decade, including the one in which he introduced Madhuri Dixit (Abodh, 1984) were actually not too doing well.

Yet, with limited prints and word-of-mouth publicity, the film scaled unprecedented heights in popularity and box-office collections. Made on a budget of Rs 2 crore, it went on to earn more than Rs 30 crore, worldwide. Even till date, the film is fondly remembered for its elaborate family-based scenes and emotions and foot-tapping music and songs.

Tarachand had lit a revival spark thus, which made the indifferent middle-class viewers return to the theatres to watch films. Sooraj went on to score a hat-trick with his next two films – Hum Aapke Hain Koun(1994) and Hum Saath Saath Hain (1999) – released after his grandfather passed away. May 10 happens to be Barjatya's 106th birth anniversary.