It is well known that Andaz Apna Apna, starring Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Karisma Kapoor and Raveena Tandon, did not perform well at the box office when it released. It is said that the film did not get a proper theatrical release which led to its mediocre box office collection at the time but soon after it started playing on satellite television, Andaz Apna Apna gained cult status. 31 years after its original release, actor Tiku Talsania, who played a small but memorable part in the film, recently revealed that he too, did not enjoy the movie when it first released. Tiku shared that while he enjoys it now, he didn’t like it back then.
In a chat with Lallantop Cinema, Tiku shared that during the shoot of the film, director Rajkumar Santoshi gave all the actors a lot of liberty to improvise. “Rajkumar Santoshi told us clearly that this isn’t just my film, it belongs to all of us. He gave us the freedom that you do whatever you want to do within the scene. So we kept improvising and he carefully chose what we should do, and that’s how a lot of scenes were done,” he said.
When asked if there was no script for this film, Tiku said that they had the script but they just kept adding to it. One of Tiku’s most memorable scenes in the film is the one where Salman and Aamir’s characters are arrested and brought to a police station, where Tiku is in-charge.
Tiku Talsania was then asked about the film’s fate at the time and he admitted that he didn’t like the film back then. “Even I didn’t like the film but later it became a cult film. When my son gets sad, this is the film he watches. It is something beyond your expectations,” he said and explained why he did not like the film. “Things were just sprinkled here and there. There was no storyline as such. Like there is one scene with someone, then another scene with someone else, so I just felt that it was being dragged but people enjoyed it. You can never gauge the audience’s reaction.” Tiku then added that even though he did not like it back then, he likes it now.
It is well known that Andaz Apna Apna was made under trying circumstances. Raveena Tandon and Karisma Kapoor were not on talking terms at the time and the director had to tie them together in a scene so they would get past their differences. Even Salman Khan and Aamir Khan did not get along during the making, primarily because their approach to work was starkly different. The film was in the making for four years which made matters worse.
Andaz Apna Apna recently re-released in theatres.