Bollywood Flashback: Karisma Kapoor’s Hot and Cold Relationship With Akshay Kumar!
February 14, 2022It’s often said that when you achieve your deserved success, you would never like to let it go. More than losing out on the fame and glamour of tinsel town, it is the horror of all those struggling days, which seem to haunt even in broad daylight. When it comes to our Hindi film stars, it is the same. Something similar happened with the talented and gorgeous Karisma Kapoor.
Despite being a star kid, Karisma Kapoor had a tough time entering into the world of Hindi cinema. She accepted all kind of films and kept doing them, mostly with actors like Govinda, Sunil Shetty, Ajay Devgn, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar. Many of these films like Prem Qaidi, Jigar, Anari, Raja Babu, Dulaara, Khuddar, Gopi Kishan, Coolie No.1, and Jeet fared well at the box office. Yet, Karisma failed to reach the top slot of being an A-lister actress like Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla and others. It’s at that time that she got a big film Raja Hindustani opposite Aamir Khan. This movie not only changed Karisma’s image in terms of her looks and fashion, but also turned her into a top actress overnight.
Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal further catapaulted her position among the top A-lister actresses of the country. While success brings confidence, professionalism and fortune, it also brings along insecurity and the fear of losing it. In such a confusing state of mind, Karisma decided to stop doing films with Govinda, her No.1 co-star. The reason was simple, Karisma wanted to come out of those mass-oriented films and wanted to concentrate more on doing films with the Khans followed by films with big banners. Thus, she started rejecting all small films with Govinda and did only films like Haseena Maan Jayegi and Shikari as they belonged to big banners. Similarly, she stopped doing films with Sunil Shetty as most of his solo films failed to fare well at the box-office. But the most surprising fall-out was with Akshay Kumar.
Karisma’s first association with Akshay was in Deedar followed by two big banner films Maidan-E-Jung and Sapoot. Both the films fared badly over the box-office. In the mid-90’s era, Akshay was going through a bad phase of his career as more than a dozen of his films had flopped including Lahoo Ke Do Rang with Karisma Kapoor. The debacle of this film was like an alarming bell for Karisma Kapoor and she was confused whether she should do more films with Akshay or not. Personally, they were good friends, but Karisma wanted to plan her films and career very carefully. It’s at that time Tanuja Chandra approached her for Sangharsh. Karisma loved the script and was totally keen to do it on an urgent basis until the time she came to know that the makers are planning to sign Akshay Kumar. The moment Akshay was on board, Karisma was in a dilemma about doing this film. People around her mislead her due to which she walked out of the project, which eventually went to Priety Zinta.
Karisma wanted to work with good directors like Priyadarshan. As per Priyadarshan, Karisma expressed her desire to work with him in at least one film. Priyadarshan knew Karisma’s latest box-office status and was waiting to get a big banner film so that he can do justice to Karisma’s stature. Finally, he got a big banner film Hera Pheri and approached Karisma for this film. Again Karisma was totally excited about the project until she found out that this movie also co-stars Akshay Kumar and Sunil Shetty. Karisma again decided to opt out of this film. As per Priyadarshan, the reasons she gave were ‘personal problems’. Priyadarshan decided to move ahead and make the film, which ended up being a cult comedy of our times. Makers stopped offering Karisma films opposite Akshay Kumar. Their association had almost ended except for a delayed film Jaanwar which released in 1999 and was Akshay’s first hit after many flops. With Jaanwar, Akshay’s luck changed and he then had back to back hits in the form of films like Hera Pheri, Dhadkan and many more.
At that time Karisma and Akshay’s close friend and director of Jaanwar Suneel Darshan, approached his hit pair again for a big film Ek Rishtaa: The Bond of Love also starring Amitabh Bachchan. Karisma was now convinced that Akshay was no longer a flop star and that a film with him would definitely enhance her career. She signed the film. Ek Rishtaa: The Bond of Love was an instant hit and added one more feather in Karisma’s cap. Karisma was happy about once again working with her good friend. Sadly, the market value of Karisma was not the same as it was in the late 90s and thus they only did two more films Haan.. Maine Bhi Pyar Kiya Hain and Mere Jeevan Saathi which fared badly over the box-office.
As they say in this film industry, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies. Something similar was seen in the case of Karisma Kapoor and Akshay Kumar. If only wishes were horses and Akshay’s lady luck would have smiled at him a few years earlier, we could have probably seen Karisma in Sungharsh and Hera Pheri.
Fun Facts –
Sridevi got her first hit in Hindi films with Himmatwala opposite jumping jack Jeetendra. Together they did around 16-17 films, including some super hit films like Justice Chaudhury, Mawaali, Tofha, Maqsad, Jaani Dost, etc. But the moment Sridevi got big offers such as Karma, Nagina & Mr. India, which took her to the top slot, she stopped signing films with Jeetendra. She somehow completed few delayed films like Majaal, Aulad, Himmat Aur Mehanat and Sone Pe Suhaaga. It’s also rumored that Sridevi later bought the rights of most of her initial films as the distributors kept re-releasing them after the success of her latest films in order to cash in on her popularity.
Similarly, Rekha also stopped working with her first hit film hero Navin Nischol after working with him in five films from 1970 to 1975. Though, they worked again, only in Aastha (1997). The moment she started doing films with Amitabh Bachchan and later reached at the top level, she stopped her ties with all those actors who were not successful at the box office, including her one time best friend Randhir Kapoor with whom she worked in many films including hits like Rampur Ka Laxman, Dharam Karam, etc. Though two decades later, they teamed up again in Sawan Kumar Tak’s Mother, followed by recently released Super Nani.
Raja Hindustani was offered to Aishwariya Rai and Juhi Chawla but both of them rejected the film and finally the role went to Karisma Kapoor. Similarly, her role of Nisha in Dil To Pagal Hai was rejected by Juhi Chawla, Raveena Tandon, Kajol, Shilpa Shetty and Manisha Koirala. Both these films fetched Karisma Filmfare awards followed by a National award for the latter one.
