Kshana Kshanam (1991) dubbed into Hindi as Hairaan (1993): Sridevi and Venkatesh's Telugu Superhit, Hindi flop!

The Telugu blockbuster Kshana Kshanam with Sridevi and Venkatesh was dubbed into Hindi as Hairaan in 1991. 

The original release was a massive hit that Sridevi (and the film's music director) got several awards for. But humour and dialogues didn't translate well into Hindi - and the film fizzled out in its northern avatar for the Hindi belt.  

Hairaan was rather poorly dubbed - as most dubbed films were in the early 1990s. The potential for a movie to do well for a pan-Indian audience wasn't well tapped into (unlike today). The songs in particular seemed extremely jarring... the lip sync is out of whack, the music doesn't go... it just didn't work. In fact, watching the film in its original language with subtitles works better than a bad dub! 

Sridevi looked gorgeous throughout, acted well and her fans went all out to watch the film from beginning to end. Lord knows we saw it several times on bad copies on VCD! Remember VCDs?!! 

Ram Gopal Verma's comedy caper works wonders in its original language - the way he captured Sridevi, the way the songs were shot, the adventure/comedy beat... he repeated a lot of the film's action/humour/travel undertones and flavour in Rangeela and Daud. 

Heard recently that Rangeela was conceived as a Sridevi film and Daud were offered to Sridevi but she refused. A film that was originally meant to be made with Sridevi and Nagarjuna! Wonder what that would have been like... 

Sridevi looks absolutely gorgeous in the film. Worth a watch - in the original format with subtitles.