It has been 33 years since the release of Sunny Deol-Rishi Kapoor’s film Damini. The film was released on 30 April 1993. This legal drama film of director Rajkumar Santoshi was a blockbuster at the box office. Sunny received the National Award for the role played in this film.
Damini was a 1993 legal drama film directed and co-written by Rajkumar Santoshi. Meenakshi Sheshadri played the lead role in the film. However, she was not the first choice for the movie. This is one of the best women centric films in Bollywood.
It is said that Rishi Kapoor had advised the makers to cast Sridevi in the movie. Whereas, Sunny Deol wanted Dimple Kapadia to be cast. After hearing about Dimple’s casting, Rishi even threatened to leave the film. However, the makers did not pay much attention to the words of both the stars. Read this also… Sanjay Dutt rejected these 6 explosive films, one had made the new hero a superstar.
If reports are to be believed, the makers of Damini did not listen to both Sunny Deol and Rishi Kapoor and offered the film to Madhuri Dixit. However, Madhuri refused as she was busy. After this the film went to Meenakshi Sheshadri.
It is said that Meenakshi Sheshadri played the best role of her career in the film Damini. In this film, she was seen fighting a legal battle for a victim. However, even after playing a brilliant role, she could not get the Best Actress award. Amrish Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Anjan Srivastava, Rohini Hattangadi, Tinu Anand, Vijayendra Ghatge, Achyut Potdar, Viju Khote, KK Raina, Virendra Saxena played lead roles in the film Damini. Rajkumar Santoshi made the movie with a budget of Rs 2 crore. It had collected Rs 11 crore at the box office. About 4 remakes of the film Damini were made. It was remade in Oriya as Nari Nuhne Tu Narayani, starring Siddhant Mahapatra and Rachana Banerjee. A remake was made in Tamil in the name of Priyanka, in which Revathi played the lead role. The film was made in Telugu with the name Urmila, starring Suman and Malashri and in Bangladesh, the film was made with the name Sotyer Bijoy.
The film Damini was declared a blockbuster at the box office. The rights of the film were with Shahrukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment. However, later it was given to Sunny Deol. He was planning to remake the film with his son Karan Deol. However, it has not been made yet.