Andaaz

2003 film by Raj Kanwar

Akshay Kumar as Flight Lieutenant Raj Malhotra
Lara Dutta as Kajal
Priyanka Chopra as Jiya
Aman Verma as Karan Singhania
Pankaj Dheer as Prof. Rohit Malhotra
Navni Parihar as Kiran Rohit Malhotra
Johnny Lever as "G. I. Joe"
Rajeev Verma as Ishwar Singhania, Karan and Jiya's father
Gajendra Chauhan as Dilip Sahay
Vivek Shauq as Raunak
Prithvi Zutshi as Ishwar Singhania's brother
Vishwajeet Pradhan as Ishwar Singhania's brother
Kushal Punjabi as Monty
Asha Sharma as Rukmini Mehra, Kajal's grandmother
Maya Alagh as Malti Singhania
Beena Banerjee as Beena Sahay
Supriya Karnik as Guest (cameo)

When director Raj Kanwar approached Suneel Darshan with the idea for Andaaz, Darshan liked the concept and agreed to produce the film under his production company Shree Krishna International despite the poor performance of Kanwar's previous three films. Robin Bhatt, Shyam Goel and Jainendra Jain had written the film's screenplay. The casting of the titleholders of such major beauty pageants was seen as an excellent move in the media, and Darshan has said that he chose to cast the two beauty queens together in their film debut for the first time in the history of cinema to give the film a unique selling point. Kumar had wanted to become an air force pilot in real life, so he was excited to play one in the film saying that it helped him to fulfill a personal fantasy. To differentiate Kajal from Jiya, the creators chose Mona Ghosh Shetty to dub Kajal's lines, which gave her a very high pitched voice. Chopra identified closely with her character, saying that "just like her name, [Jiya] is full of beans and loves life. She comes across as very modern, but in her heart, she is a traditional Indian girl." About the film, Chopra said, "There is nothing hatke [different] about it. But it is the way the romantic scenes have been treated, and the tiny details, that make it special." Andaaz was supposed to be Chopra's debut Bollywood film, but her other film, The Hero: Love Story of a Spy, ended up being released one month before it. However, Chopra was still credited as a debutant in the opening credits of Andaaz. Dutta and Chopra's costumes were designed by Manish Malhotra. While shooting one of the musical sequences on a rocky shore in Cape Town, Kumar and Dutta were pulled under the waves. Kumar rescued Dutta by pulling her ashore. Naresh Sharma composed the background score and editing was done by Sanjay Sankla. Released on 26 February 2003 at an event in Mumbai, it was the first album issued by Darshan's record label Shree Krishna Audio. The film's soundtrack album received positive reviews from music critics. Bollywood Hungama praised it as "a good album, worth a buy!". Planet Bollywood gave it a rating of 7.5 (out of 10) calling it "good" and wrote: "the album has two or three excellent songs and another three good numbers and a couple of ordinary ones. Overall, it's definitely worth a buy especially so for Nadeem Shravan/Sameer and melody fans. It is better than most of their recent efforts". The music topped charts on a number of platforms in India. The album was the second best selling Bollywood soundtrack of the year, with 2.5 million units sold according to Box Office India.

The acting debuts of the former Miss Universe and Miss World, and their pairings with Kumar, were much anticipated in the lead up to Andaaz's release. The early success of the film's soundtrack also helped to promote the film, with song clips regularly appearing on television. Its release was scheduled for 18 April 2003 but was later postponed because of the 2003 Bollywood Producers strike. The film was ultimately released on 23 May 2003 on 300 screens. Prior to Andaaz, no Bollywood films released in 2003 had achieved much box office success. Expectations for Andaaz were low, as films with bigger stars were failing to sell. However, the film opened to a huge response at the box office, with The Times of India reporting on opening week that it "could be the first bona fide all India hit" of the year. Due to overwhelming demand, distributors were forced to ask Darshan for additional prints of the film. The film also celebrated a silver jubilee by remaining in theaters for over 100 days. Bollywood Hungama deemed it the "first universal hit of the year". It was the ninth highest grossing Indian film of the year. The VCD version was released at the same time. Two more DVD versions were released on 13 September 2005 and 26 January 2007 by Shree Krishna International and Tips Films Music, respectively. Despite Andaazs box office success, as he had with his previous works, Darshan refused to sell the film's television rights. The collective value of his films' unsold satellite rights was estimated to be 1 billion. The film's premiere garnered high ratings for the network. Hindustan Times rated the film at 3 out of 5, calling it a "brightly wrapped" love triangle, writing that "with two former beauty queens gunning to serve a hotter peekaboo plethora, you can't possibly complain over timepass with Andaaz." Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama noted that the performances of the newcomers, the music, the "engaging" second half and the "brilliant climax" were the film's highlights. Although he felt that the "predictable" first half diluted the impact of the film to an extent. Praising the cast, Adarsh felt that the newcomers "stole the show" and Kumar did "justice to his role", writing "Dutta is impressive. She handles both the emotional as well as chirpy scenes with amazing ease. However, Chopra is the one to watch out for. Combining talent with sex appeal, she emotes the various shades of her character with versatility." However, he was critical of the formulaic script and Kumar's performance, writing that the actor "lacks the necessary emotions and fails miserably to get any kind of sympathy from the audience."

After the success of Andaaz, the pairing of Chopra and Kumar proved to be popular and successful. However, Kumar opted out of the former after filming some scenes, while Chopra was removed from the latter at the last minute. Andaaz was one of the early successes of Dutta and Chopra's careers. Dutta went on to have a decent career in Bollywood and became a popular actress. Chopra would go on to become one of the most popular and highest paid actresses in Bollywood, while establishing herself as a leading actress of Indian cinema. She would later go on to work in Hollywood and achieve international stardom.

Award Date Category Cast nominee(s) Result Ref. (Reference(s)) Filmfare Awards20 February 2004 Best Supporting Actress Best Female Debut Best Lyricist Sameer (for song "Kisise Tum Pyaar Karo") Best Male Playback Singer (for song "Kisise Tum Pyaar Karo") Screen Awards 16 January 2004Best Female Debut Zee Cine Awards 26 February 2004Best Female Debut Best Music Director Nadeem–Shravan