Before Aankhen, I had never experienced stardom of this level, says film’s director David Dhawan

When the largest blockbuster of the 12 months, Aankhen launched on April 9, 1993, director David Dhawan and actor Govinda had been in Bangalore, taking pictures for one more mission. Unaware of the blast that the movie’s success had created, Dhawan then obtained a name from the producer, to inform what he and the crew and completed.

“Pahlaj Nihalani called me and said, ‘You don’t know what this film has done. It has broken all the records. People were going crazy’. And back then, there were no mobile phones, so I started receiving telegrams from distributers,” remembers Dhawan, including, “Isse pehle aisa success dekha hi nahi tha. Shola Aur Shabnam did well but Aankhen’s success was enormous.”

Too harmless to know the business that the movie was doing, Dhawan travelled again to Mumbai, every week later. “From the airport, I directly went to the theatre where my film was being screened, and I was taken by surprise to see people’s reaction. At the venue, there was chaos. The whole press was present and everybody wanted a picture of me. I could not believe it as I had never experienced stardom of this level. Later that evening, there was a party at Taj and every senior of mine…every big filmmaker was present. They congratulated me. I had tears in my eyes ,” he recounts the frenzy.

The ace director tells us that from that day, his profession modified perpetually and “I never looked back.” He elaborates, “From the next day, I started getting so many offers to direct films and the whole game was turned around. People’s attitude towards me, the budget of my films, my whole dynamic with the industry changed. I brought a house. Usse pehle kya haalat thi meri, woh mujhe hi pata hai. I feel God is great and he gave me the right film at the right time.”

Ask him who does he give the credit score of this movie’s success to, and Dhawan says, “First one would be Pahlaj. He is one of those producers who would react the set even if the shoot starts at 6 am. Then comes Govinda — an unbelievable actor who creates magic on screen and Anees (Bazmee), who did an outstanding job on the script throughout. He used to write everyday and till the end, actively participated in the film. The film’s success was definitely a team work and everyone did amazing, but these three people, I believe, did exceptionally well,” he concludes.