Why Govinda failed: Tum kya apne aap ko Mughal-e-Azam, hum log ko Anarkali samajhta hai; kitna nacha raha hai? Hold on! Hold on! Before you burst Before you burst out against me, let me tell you that this dialogue is not to rejuvenate the 90s, rather it’s some emotions that Govinda’s career has realized this late.
As a kid of the 90s, we have seen Govinda delivering some award-winning pieces of art. But soon, he lost the battle of consistency by refuting opportunities. And this became a helicopter shot for Sunny Deol’s career to win the match through the movie ‘Gadar’.
Govinda: Once a superstar
Govinda has given us some of the best movies and songs of our generation. Some of his songs including Kabhi hotel me khae, Sona kitna Sona hai, Aankheinyo se goli maare, among others are a humming tunes of many. Even millennials, who mostly are indulged in hip hop, rap, also get enthusiastic when listening to his superhits.
During the 80’s, almost every actor in the industry kept themselves busy with action films. Govinda too went ahead with the herd mentality by acting in films like Mera Lahoo, Marte Dum Tak, Khudgarz, Dadagiri, Hatya and Sachai Ki Taqat among others.
After his popular Shola Aur Shabnam, Govinda shifted his base from Action and Drama to comedy genre. He then went on to deliver successful films like Aankhen, Raja Babu, Coolie No. 1, Sajaan Chale Sasural, Hero No. 1, Dulhe Raja and Jodi No. 1 to name a few. Within a short span, Govinda was crowned as the king of comedy. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to label him as one of the first actors to get comedy into the mainstream of Bollywood.
His career was at the peak alongside the three Khans of Bollywood at this juncture. At one side, there were Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan, and at the other, it was Govinda to counter balance them. The 21st century saw an intense struggle of cinema houses to screen between the mega stars.
Why did Govinda fail? He lost the upcoming opportunity
The success stories of a man who went from struggling to live a life in a chawl to making his way into bungalows due to his super hit movies was an inspiration for almost every individual. But soon his career started to witness dilapidation. With consecutive successes, Govinda felt his superiority in the industry and this made him ruin himself.
It was in the 2000s when a director approached him with a blockbuster movie based on partition. But Govinda was neither convinced with the story nor with its character and thus rejected the life changing opportunity. By this action he proved the Hindi saying – ‘Kamyabi insaan ko aksar andha kar deti hai’. The role he had refused was the character of Tara Singh from the movie Gadar.
Yes, you got it right. Director Anil Sharma and writer Shaktiman Talwar came up with the script of “Gadar – Ek Prem Katha”. But it was turned down by Govinda as provably it was not according to his stature and the character was too violent.
Opportunity for others
Nonetheless, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. This time it was for Sunny Deol in the form of Tara Singh’s character. Sunny Deol was a pure action hero, who had played a very selected number of alternate categories. Performing a purely romantic character showing an important part of Indian history, was a difficult task in itself for the ‘dhai kilo ka hath’. But it cannot be denied that no one could have performed this better than what Sunny Deol did as Tara Singh.
Interestingly, Gadar faced a screening competition with Aamir Khan’s much-awaited ‘Lagaan’. From money, fame, power, to system, Aamir Khan had everything and even the critics were under his hand. But Gadar’s Tara Singh and his handpump created doldrums for the controversial actor. To put it simply, Tara Singh caused the host of Satyamev Jayate a painful avalanche in his career.
Govinda rejecting Gadar was not the first such case. The movie Taal was also offered to him earlier. But Govinda did not like that film either. He also suggested changing the movie’s name, which Subhash Ghai did not like. Similarly, the character of Chunni Babu of ‘Devdas’ was also offered to him. But he had said that he was a star, and that Shahrukh should personally offer the film to him.
Govinda must be regretting and anguishing over his own decisions while thinking about what he lost after rejecting these films and this is the answer of Why Govinda fail in Bollywood?. We wish that Govinda had correct decision-making skills at the time when it was needed.
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