Billed as India’s most expensive film, this period drama suffered 80% loss at the box office and was criticised for blackface, complex dialogue.
The 1970s and 80s saw a tonal shift in Hindi cinema. The explosion of Amitabh Bachchan’s Angry Young Man made films grander and bigger. Even social dramas and period pieces became more ‘epic’ in nature. Right after the release of Sholay, filmmaker Kamal Amrohi set out to make a period drama on that scale. His dream project – meant to be the next Mughal-e-Azam, took seven years to make. But the end result was so disastrous that the entire film industry was pulled into debt. (Also read: When India’s most expensive film bombed on Diwali, empty theatres demanded refund, superstar had to issue apology)
Hema Malini and Parveen Babi in Razia Sultan
The tragedy that was Razia Sultan
Razia Sultan, Kamal Amrohi’s biopic of India’s only female Muslim ruler, was eventually released in 1983. It was made on a reported budget of ₹10 crore, pipping Shaan to become the most expensive Indian film made at the time. With a big cast led by Hema Malini and featuring Dharmendra, Parveen Babi, Sohrab Modi, and Ajit, the film was the most anticipated release of its time. But it bombed badly. Viewers found the Urdu used in the film too complex, while others criticised the lengthy runtime. There was criticism of Dharmendra employing blackface to play the Abyssinian slave warrior Yakut, as well. All these combined to sink Razia Sultan, which only managed to earn ₹2 crore at the box office.
Dharmendra’s blackface was among the many things criticised in Razia Sultan
The row over Razia Sultan’s same-sex ‘kiss’
One of the themes in Razia Sultan was about the titular queen’s loneliness at the top. The film explored her romance with Yakut but also introduced a controversial track about her closeness to her aide Khakun (played by Parveen Babi). To depict the two women’s more-than-platonic relationship, Kamal Amrohi included a love song between the two characters. It ended with a tender peck on the cheek. However, the kiss was publicised to the audience as a same-sex kiss, which generated further negative publicity for the film. Family audiences turned away, and a few objections were raised from Muslim clerics as well over the ‘improper’ depiction of Muslim women in the film.
Razia Sultan’s impact on the film industry
Razia Sultan was more than a film. It was a project that took years to make and cost 60% more than even Sholay. The film employed hundreds of technicians and thousands of actors as extras. Amrohi had taken several loans from within the industry and even held back the pay of several crew members to make the film, promising to pay them after the release. But as the film registered a monumental 80% loss, the returns were zero. As a result, several enterprises in Bollywood faced a shortage of cash. Amrohi paid most of the crew members from his own pocket, but the distributors and exhibitors suffered nonetheless. According to IMDb, almost the entire Hindi film industry was in debt for a while.
But even as Bollywood recovered, Kamal Amrohi did not. He started a film called Majnoon with Rajesh Khanna in the lead. But the financial setback caused by Razia had that film shelved. He began writing a script on Mughal ruler Bahadurshah Zafar, which he called Aakhiri Mughal. However, he could never finish it. His death in 1993 put an end to that film, and Razia Sultan remained his last film.
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