Clash of the Titans of Bollywood: Sridevi vs Amitabh Bachchan: 1989

Sridevi on the sets of Nigahein. One of the few Hindi films in the 1980s that was a sequel demanded by the fans - the original, Nagina, was such a beloved blockbuster that did phenomenal, unexpected and unprecedented business, it would have been irresistible to not make a sequel. Why unexpected?

Think about it, at the time, the star of the movie was this janter-manter snake, all of Sridevi's hits from 1983-1986 had male superstar leads such as Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra, the film had a tiny budget, the special effects were risible, it was a movie rejected by a lot of stars so there was no initial buzz about the film prior to its release. The film's initial reviews were in fact bad; Sarita magazine said it had "an illogical plot" and Filmfare's reviewers stated the stars were hamming throughout. It made no difference as the film was a runaway hit (second only to Karma - which also starred Sridevi). 

Much has been said about Sridevi's reluctance to work with Amitabh Bachchan in the 1980s, how she was called the "female Amitabh Bachchan" during her peak, and how she only agreed to work in a Bachchan film if she had equal footing.

Here's a tidbit that's mostly hasn't come to light in recent years; the box-office clash of Sridevi and Amitabh Bachchan on 11 August 1989. Most producers shied away from releasing a film at the same time as a Big B movie (Yash Chopra famously said he moved his movies around Bachchan's film releases as he really didn't want to loose money and audience to Bachchan).

However, so confident was producer/director  Harmesh Malhotra of his leading lady, he released the highly anticipated sequel to his blockbuster Nagina, Nighaein - Nagina Part II on the same day as Toofan, Amitabh Bachchan's mega movie with Manmohan Desai. Both were director - star combinations that did wonders at the box-office in the past so distributors paid top bucks, well, rupees, for the rights.

As fate would have it, both movies had tepid responses by the audience and just barely broke even that year. As box office statics show, in the first week, Nigahein collected 70 lakhs and Toofan collected 80. However, a Bachchan film costs a lot more to make (and Toofan had a much bigger star-cast including Amrira Singh, Meenakshi Sheshadiri and Farooq Shaikh). As a percentage and ratio, perhaps Nigahein fared better for the producers and distributors but we'll never know for sure as overall box office collections and budgets are not a matter of public record.