Here's some interesting trivia about the RGV directorial that catapulted many a career in Indian cinema

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Revisiting Rangeela: 50 facts about Bollywood's cult musical

Team CE

Updated:11th Jan, 2022 at 12:07 PM

Aamir worked on his diction, dialogue delivery and body language to portray the character convincingly.

The name 'Rangeela' was based on the character of Munna by Aamir Khan. But it was Urmila Matondkar who became synonymous after the success of the film.

Urmila would often be termed by the media as 'Rangeeli' in publications and in popular culture, following the success of the film.

Urmila Matondkar was not the initial choice for Mili's Role. Ram Gopal Varma badly wanted to cast Sridevi in the film.

Manisha Koirala and Raveena Tandon were also approached for the role of Mili, but they declined.

To get into the role of a Mumbaiya Tapori, Aamir Khan actually spent some of his time with real Taporis in the slums of Mumbai.

Director Ram Gopal Varma had revealed that the primary motive in making Rangeela was to capture Urmila’s beauty eternally on camera and to make it a benchmark for sex symbols.

Ram Gopal Varma was apparently not happy with Saroj Khan's choreography of 'Tanha Tanha'. So he appointed Ahmed Khan to choreograph the rest of the songs.

However, the choreography of Saroj Khan in 'Tanha Tanha' became the talk of the town and earned her widespread acclaim.

The title credits of the film that features the legendary actors and actresses of Indian Cinema were especially put on display as a token of love from Ram Gopal Varma to the Industry.

In his words, Rangeela was RGV's tribute to the beauty of Indian Cinema.

Rangeela remains RGV's only successful light hearted film that consisted of romance, music and comedy. After that he shifted his focus to thriller and gangster films.

RGV attempted to make another light hearted film in the lines of Rangeela, titled Mast, in 1999. That film however could not replicate the success of Rangeela.

Both Aamir Khan and Jacky Shroff later accepted that they did not like the music when they first heard it and had not much expectation out of it.

Even Asha Bhosle whose career also got a boost with this film did not like the songs much when narrated to her for the first time.

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar appears in a cameo of an Assistant Director to Steven Kapoor played by Gulshan Grover.

According to popular public opinion, it has been widely reported that actor Aamir Khan stopped attending award functions after he did not win the Best Actor Award for his performance in Rangeela.

On the contrary, it was Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander for which Aamir lost the award to Anil Kapoor for Beta which led to the disappointment of the former after which he boycotted the award functions.

Rangeela was AR Rahman's debut Hindi film with an original score and soundtrack, as his previous Hindi releases were dubbed versions of his Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films

Rangeela is considered to be a cult classic in history of Bollywood. The impact of it was so huge that the film was reported to have inspired the 2004 movie, 'Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!'

Rangeela opened to critical acclaim and was declared a “blockbuster” at the box office. The film, made on a budget of 4.5 crores, made 33.4 crores worldwide.

In addition to making Urmila a phenomenon, Rangeela catapulted Urmila's designer Manish Malhotra to overnight fame.

Rangeela was screened at the mainstream section of the International Film Festival of India, where it was much appreciated.

The 2010 film Break Ke Baad is also loosely based on the storyline of 'Rangeela'.

ARR's 7 songs for the film became a rage across languages and they topped the charts for almost a decade.

The lyrics for all the songs were penned by Mehboob.

The soundtrack fetched Rahman two filmfare awards, Filmfare Best Music Director Award and Filmfare RD Burman Award for New Music Talent.

Mehboob got two nominations for Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist, for the tracks 'Kya Kare' and 'Tanha Tanha'.

The song 'Yaaro Sun Lo Zara' was originally composed for a Telugu film Super Police as 'Baabu Love Cheyyara'.

The lyrics for the dubbed soundtrack in Tamil were penned by Vairamuthu.

The scene about the actress on the sets with Jackie Shroff, who complains a lot and is accompanied with her mother, is rumoured to be a parody on Sridevi.

Salman Khan was first considered for Jackie Shroff's role.

Rangeela marked the return of the then 62-year-old veteran playback singer Asha Bhosle, who sang two super hit songs for the movie.

Rangeela is the single longest running movie in Nepali theaters. When it was out of a major theater in Kathmandu, people protested and brought it back for another run.

The character Steven Kapur is actually a parody on filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor, a director from the UK who couldn't fit well in the industry. Coincidently, Steven Kapur is the name of famous singer Apac

John Abraham's tapori look in the film Welcome Back (2015) was inspired from Aamir Khan's look in Rangeela.

The music of the film was launched by AR Rahman's mother Kareema in September 1995.

Anil Kapoor was first offered Jackie Shroff's role, but he declined due to lack of dates.

The scene in which Producer PC mentions that Hum Aapke Hain Koun was actually his script, but he gave it to Sooraj Bharjatrya, is actually a parody on Bollywood producers who tell false stories.

Aamir Khan used his own clothes for his character, and he took some old clothes from his friends too.

Aditya Narayan, the son of Udit Narayan makes an appearance in the song Rangeela Re and he also sings some lines in the song.

Shah Rukh Khan was offered the role of Munna but declined since he didn't think a tapori character would go well with his 'romantic image' that he had begun developing at the time.

The film was a major breakthrough for Urmila's career it also established her as a bankable actress.

Urmila Matondkar was not a trained dancer while the time to filming of the movie.

The cap Aamir wears in Andaz Apna Apna is the same type of cap he wore in Rangeela.

Black Eye Peas sampled the song 'Hai Rama' for their song 'Mare'

In the opening song 'Rangeela Re', now famous choreographer and director Remo D'Souza appears as a background dancer.

Despite Rangeela's success, Aamir Khan never worked with RGV and Urmila again.

RGV worked with Urmila in 'Drohi'. During Drohi shoot, when the choreographer didn't turn up, he asked Urmila if she could dance on her own and she agreed. That's when he decided to make Rangeela.

In 1977, producer RC Kumar was making a film titled 'Rangeela' starring Feroz Khan, and directed by Brij Sadanah. The film got shelved.

While one-half of Urmila's Tanha Tanha number was shot in Goa, the other half had to be shot in Madh Island. And no one could tell the difference.

According to RGV, 'Rangeela' was a homage to two of his favourite Hollywood films, The Sound Of Music and Singing In The Rain. The choreography in Rangeela was inspired by 'Singing In The Rain'.

The Aguada fort in Goa - a popular shooting spot - was an integral part of a lot of iconic scenes in Rangeela.

'Rangeela re' was entirely shot at and around CBD Belapur railway station in Navi Mumbai. In one of the scene in the song, one can even read the name of said railway station.

Ashwini Bhave was also apparently in the running for the lead role.

Director Ram Gopal Varma often spells out 'Rangeela' as his worst film in interviews

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