Madhoo Shah recalls why she didnt want her iconic film, 'Roja' to be released in Hindi language.
Madhoo was one of the most-loved faces of the ‘90s, whose terrific filmography made her quite popular within a short duration. She starred in a number of highly-successful films, such as Phool Aur Kaante, Diljale, Yeshwant among many others. However, it was her film, Roja which gave her immense fame and stardom. For the unversed, it was directed by Mani Ratnam and featured Arvind Swami opposite her.
In a recent interaction with Filmibeat, Madhoo recalled why she didn’t want her film, Roja to get released in Hindi. Calling herself the OG superstar, the diva explained how back at that time, she wasn’t well-versed with the art of dubbing, Adding how the film went ahead with its Hindi release and her original voice would have got dubbed with someone else, Madhoo said:
“When I heard for the first time that they are releasing in Hindi. So, I said, 'please don't release in Hindi and make it into that dubbed film, I don't want it'. In Tamil, it had already released, and it was a hit. So, initially, I didn't do dubbing at that time, but they decided that they want to release in Hindi, and they dubbed it with somebody else. So, they said that the movie is releasing in Hindi, and the dubbing is also done, you can watch it. I watched it and I heard the dubbing, and I was like 'Oh My God', they are releasing this film, and this will go in Hindi without my voice."
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Speaking along the same lines, Madhoo then revealed how Mani Ratnam honoured her decision to dub her film in Hindi with her own voice. Thereafter, she mentioned that while dubbing Roja in Tamil took her nine days, she was able to dub it in Hindi in just one day. Claiming herself to be the first-ever pan-Indian star, Madhoo added:
“So, I said, let me just dub it, and in one day, I dubbed the whole film. There was nobody from the director's team, and for Roja Tamil, Mani sir was sitting for nine days, I dubbed for it for nine days, and Hindi, I dubbed in one day. That film became a hit. So, because it became a hit I feel like today everybody is making it in Telugu, and releasing in Hindi, and they are calling it pan-India, so I said, this I had done in 90s. I am the OG pan-India before Pushpa and Baahubali.”
Previously, while speaking with Siddharth Kannan, Madhoo retrospected about her soured equations with Mani Ratnam, who was the man behind her sky-rocketing success in Roja. She agreed how she was wrong in her behaviour by not giving Mani Ratnam the due credit behind her recognition. In her words:
“There was an element of ‘I.’ I refused to give credit to anyone and people got pissed off because Mani Ratnam sir deserved the credit. You liked my simplicity, my performance in Roja but he was the head of the crew, he was experienced and genius, he deserved the credit. Today I say this after realising it but I should have said it at that time. Even after 20 years after the release of Roja, the audience appreciate it and whenever I hear that I say ‘Mani sir you gave me an identity’.”
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Previously, Madhoo while speaking at Prime Video’s Maitri: Female First Collective, revealed that the pressing reason behind her quitting the film industry at the peak of her career was due to getting type-casted to similar roles repeatedly. She added that she was unhappy with such monotony and decided it was best to quit.
What do you think about Madhoo’s revelations?
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