With the Salman Khan-starrer in its 22nd year of release, we give you some interesting trivia about its making...

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21 Years of Biwi No 1: 25 lesser-known facts about David Dhawan's rip-roaring comedy

Team CE

Published:2nd Dec, 2020 at 6:48 PM

Biwi no 1 is a remake of the 1995 Tamil-language film Sathi Leelavathi, which itself was inspired from the 1989 Hollywood movie, She-Devil.

The first film to have Anil Kapoor and Salman Khan together in lead roles.

Salman Khan replaced Govinda, who had a disagreement with Sushmita Sen and left the film.

Sanjay Dutt was signed for the film, but was later replaced by Anil Kapoor.

Manisha Koirala was the initial choice for Karishma Kapoor's role.

South heroine Rambha was the initial choice for the role of Anil Kapoor's wife that was eventually done by Tabu.

Saif Ali Khan agreed to do the film due to his paucity of work at the time.

Anil Kapoor agreed to do a supporting role to Salman only because Kamal Haasan had done it in the original.

The same year Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Karishma Kapoor, and Tabu would appear in 'Hum Saath Saath Hain,' which was also a hit.

Salman Khan was in the US during the film's post-production and couldn't do the dubbing. Chetan Shashital dubbed for him.

The first film to star Salman, Anil, and Saif.

Govinda signed the film but oddly enough returned the signing amount to producer Vashu Bhagnani. His response was that he had done the two heroines/cheating man theme to death with many films.

This is one of two films in the No. 1 series directed by Dhawan not to feature Govinda, who had starred in Coolie No 1 (95) , Hero No 1(97) and would go on to star in Jodi No. 1 (2001).

The other David Dhawan film without Govinda was Shaadi No.1 in 2005.

Juhi Chawla was at one point offered the part of Karisma Kapoor.

Amitabh Bachchan appears in a cameo role in the film.

Filming took place in areas of Florida such as Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach.

The second part of the filming took place in Delhi and Mumbai compound areas.

Sushmita Sen win almost all the major Awards (including Filmfare) for Best Supporting Actress for this film in 2000.

The film was nominated for seven awards at the 45th Filmfare Awards, including Best Film (Bhagnani), Best Director (Dhawan), Best Actress (Karisma Kapoor), and Best Comedian (Khan and Anil Kapoor).

The film's business was affected due to Cricket World Cup 1999, but still, it emerged a superhit, making it the second highest-grossing film of Bollywood that year after Hum Saath-Saath Hain.

The Biwi No.1 soundtrack was composed by Anu Malik.

'Mehbbob Mere' was composed by Sukhwinder Singh and the lyrics were written by Dev Kohli, Sameer, and Sukhwinder.

The songs 'Chunari Chunari' and 'Ishq Sona Hai' became a major hit after the release in 1999.

The film, made on a budget of 12 crores, made almost 50 crores at the box-office.

Here a few more memorable snapshots from the rollicking comedy...