Rangeela

Awards

Album Awards:
• 1995 - Filmfare Awards - Best Music Director - A.R. Rahman
• 1995 - Filmfare Awards - R.D. Burman Award - Mehboob Kotwal
Song Awards:
• 1995 - Filmfare Awards - Special Jury Award - Tanha Tanha Yahan Pe Jeena - Asha Bhosle

Trivia

Album

• The music release of this film was done by A.R. Rahman's mother, Kareema Begum.
• This was A.R. Rahman's first original score for a Hindi film. His previous scores in Hindi films were originally used in Tamil films.
• Lyricist Mehboob wrote lyrics for an original music score for the first time for this film. He had debuted earlier with lyrics for the Hindi-dubbed songs for "Bombay" (1995).[1]
• The plot of this film may have been inspired by the award-winning Telugu film "Seetamalakshmi" (1978). The Hindi film "Sitara" (1980) was an adaptation of the same Telugu film. This film, in turn, may have inspired the Hollywood romantic comedy "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!" (2004).[2]
• This was the breakthrough film of fashion designer Manish Malhotra. In fact, this film is credited with transforming the approach to costume design in Hindi films. Manish Malhotra won the first ever Filmfare Award for Best Costume Design for this film. The award was apparently instituted that year with this film in mind.
• It was speculated that Gulshan Grover's character in this film, Steven Kapoor, was based on director Shekhar Kapur. Ram Gopal Varma himself never confirmed this but said that he had heard Shekhar Kapur and Vidhu Vinod Chopra debating which one of them Steven Kapoor was based on.[3]
• Before becoming an independent director, Madhur Bhandarkar worked as an assistant director in several films. He assisted Ram Gopal Varma in this film and even appeared in a cameo as the assistant to the director played by Gulshan Grover.
• A misunderstanding developed between Ram Gopal Varma and Aamir Khan a few months after the film's release over an interview Varma had done with Khalid Mohamed. According to Varma, Khalid Mohamed had misquoted him as saying that the waiter in the film's famous restaurant scene had acted better than Aamir Khan. According to Varma, his take on the restaurant scene was more nuanced. His point of view was that the waiter's job in that scene was more difficult than Aamir's.[4]

Song

• Rangeela Re - The first song shot for this film, "Tanha Tanha", was choreographed by Saroj Khan. Ram Gopal Varma was not happy with the dance moves in the song and wanted something more modern. Consequently, he had the rest of the songs in the film choreographed by the debutant, Ahmed Khan. Ahmed Khan ended up winning the Filmfare Award for Best Choreography for this song.
• Rangeela Re - This was the debut Hindi film song of Udit Narayan's son Aditya Narayan. He also made a cameo appearance in the film to perform his lines in the song.
• Rangeela Re - Cover versions of this song were recorded for the films "Not A Love Story" (2011) and "Bhangra Paa Le" (2019).[5][6]
• Pyaar Ye Jaane Kaisa Hai - This was Suresh Wadkar's only Hindi film song for A.R. Rahman. He had previously sung songs for the Marathi-dubbed version of "Roja" (1992). Wadkar said in an interview that when he met Rahman to record this song, he was taken aback to learn that the boy he knew as Dileep was now A.R. Rahman. The singer had previously met Rahman before his conversion to Islam - Rahman was playing keyboard for Ilaiyaraaja at the time and Suresh Wadkar was singing for him. After this, he sang another song for A.R. Rahman but was unhappy with the composer's working method. Rahman had an odd schedule - he started late in the day and worked through the night. Perhaps as a result of this, the first recording of this next song was done by Rahman's assistant. The music director arrived at the studio after Wadkar and his co-singer Sadhna Sargam had left, reviewed the recording and asked the singers to make some changes. This led to an argument between Wadkar and Rahman and the two didn't work together again.[7][8]
• Tanha Tanha Yahan Pe Jeena - Asha Bhosle had declined to be considered for Filmfare Awards after winning the Best Female Playback Singer for the song "Yeh Mera Dil Yaar Ka Deewana" ("Don", 1977). However, she made an exception for this song and accepted the Filmfare Special Jury Award for it.[9]
• Yaaron Sun Lo Zara - A.R. Rahman had used the tune of this song earlier for the Telugu film song "Babu Love Cheyyara" ("Super Police", 1994).[10]
• Maangta Hai Kya - While A.R. Rahman had made his Hindi film debut as a singer earlier for the dubbed song "Urvashi Urvashi" ("Humse Hai Muqabla", 1995), this was his first Hindi film song for an original composition.[11]

1. ^ Bombay (1995)
2. ^ Sitara (1980)
3. ^ Ram Gopal Varma interview
4. ^ I will never ever do a film with Aamir Khan - Ram Gopal Varma
5. ^ Rangeela Re (Not A Love Story, 2011)
6. ^ Ho Ja Rangeela Re (Bhangra Paa Le, 1995)
7. ^ Suresh Wadkar On Why He Never Collaborated With AR Rahman After Rangeela
8. ^ Roja (1992)
9. ^ Yeh Mera Dil Yaar Ka Deewana (Don, 1977)
10. ^ Babu Love Cheyyara (Super Police, 1994)
11. ^ Urvashi Urvashi (Humse Hai Muqabla, 1995)