FILM · 1995 · INDIA
Rangeela
70 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (70)
- #001
Aamir Khan stopped attending the Filmfare Awards after the premiere of Rangeela. He was upset that his performance in the film did not win him the 1995 Best Actor award, and that he was not even nominated. He also felt he should have been recognised by Filmfare for films such as Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992) and Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993), and he was disappointed with Filmfare after these events. Rangeela's lack of recognition, however, was the point at which Aamir grew fed up and decided to stay away from Filmfare entirely.
- #002
Manish Malhotra, a well-known fashion designer, became a famous fashion designer after designing for Urmila in the film.
- #003
It is the longest-running film in Nepali cinemas. When it was taken out of a large theatre hall in Kathmandu, people protested and brought it back for another run.
- #004
It was the first Indian film with original music by Music Director A. R. Rahman; all of his previous Hindi scores had been dubbed from his Tamil compositions.
- #005
Jackie Shroff won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor award.
- #006
Aamir Khan used his own clothes for his character and also got old clothes from his friends.
- #007
Madhur Bhandarkar, who served as an Assistant Director on the film, has a special appearance as the Assistant to Film Producer P. C.
- #008
The film's music was launched by A. R. Rahman's mother, Kareema, in September 1995.
- #009
The actor Rajesh Joshi, who played Aamir Khan's friend Pakiya, died shortly afterwards in a traffic accident. He was the brother of actor Manoj Joshi.
- #010
Despite its success, Aamir Khan never again worked with RGV and Urmila.
- #011
A. R. Rahman won the Filmfare RD Burman New Music Talent Award, the first award of its kind, after the death of legendary Music Director RD Burman.
- #012
Aamir's character was based on a street thug Director RGV knew in Hyderabad. When he told Aamir about Rangeela, Aamir accepted immediately.
- #013
The hip hop group Black Eye Peas sampled the song "Hai Rama" for their song "Mare".
- #014
Ram Gopal Varma had previously worked with Urmila on the film Drohi. During Drohi, the choreographer did not turn up to shoot the song, so he asked Urmila whether she would dance on her own, and she agreed. She did a great job, and that was when the director decided to make Rangeela with Urmila.
- #015
The film was a major turning point in Urmila's career and also made her a famous actress.
- #016
Anil Kapoor was offered the role played by Jackie Shroff but turned it down due to a lack of dates.
- #017
In the opening song "Rangeela Re", the now-famous choreographer and director Remo D'Souza appears in the background as a dancer.
- #018
The film was designed with Sridevi in mind for the lead role.
- #019
Aamir Khan's tapori look and Urmila's glamorous appearance became very popular at the time.
- #020
According to director RGV, The Sound of Music, one of his favourite films, was the first film he watched and it had no villains. For this reason he deliberately avoided negative characters in Rangeela.
- #021
Raveena Tandon was also initially considered for the female lead alongside Sridevi. Urmila was later cast instead.
- #022
Udit Narayan's son Aditya Narayan appears in the song Rangeela Re and also sings some of its lyrics.
- #023
Gulshan Grover's director character Steven Kapoor is a reference to Steven Spielberg and Shekhar Kapoor.
- #024
The title of Rangeela was based on the name of the fictional film that introduces Mili, the actress played by Urmila Matondkar. After the film's success, Urmila Matondkar became synonymous with it alongside the two well-known male superstars Jackie Shroff and Aamir Khan. In Hindi the term 'Rangeela' is a masculine term, so Urmila was often referred to as 'Rangeeli' (the feminine term) by the media in broadcasts and popular culture.
- #025
Music composer A. R. Rahman also composed the film's background score.
- #026
John Abraham's tapori look in Welcome Back (2015) was inspired by Aamir Khan's look in the film.
- #027
Director Ram Gopal Varma often regards Rangeela as his worst film.
- #028
To get into the Mumbaiya tapori role, Aamir Khan actually spent some of his time in Mumbai's real slums with real taporis. Aamir worked on his diction, dialogue and body language to portray the character convincingly.
- #029
Rangeela remains director RGV's only successful musical film. Afterwards he shifted his focus to thrillers and gangster films. In 1999 he tried to make another love story, Mast, but that film could not replicate Rangeela's success.
- #030
The song "Rangeela Re" was shot entirely at and around CBD Belapur railway station in Navi Mumbai. In one scene of the song the name of the railway station can even be read.
- #031
Gulshan Grover's character is an impersonation of the famous Hollywood director Steven Spielberg. His character is named Steven Kapoor, a Bollywood director who aims to compete with Hollywood directors such as Spielberg and Coppola. Coincidentally, Steven Kapur is the name of the famous Apache Indian singer.
- #032
The film was remade in Hollywood in 2004 as Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!
- #033
Initially Ramu wanted to cast Manisha Koirala. He then went to Sridevi and finally settled on Urmila.
- #034
When Jackie hands Urmila over to Aamir and walks away, RGV was in a dilemma about the climax because he wanted a happy ending but did not want people to feel bad for Jackie and could not tell how Jackie would react, yet Jackie's sudden change of expression and his exit from the frame won him over.
- #035
Actor Aamir and director RGV fell out after Rangeela and both vowed never to work with each other again.
- #036
In 1977 producer R. C. Kumar was making a film titled "Rangeela", directed by Brij Sadanah and starring Feroz Khan. The film was shelved.
- #037
Aguada Fort in Goa became an integral part of many iconic scenes in the film.
- #038
There was a shelved "Rangeela" (1969) film. It starred Sanjeev Kumar and Vimi.
- #039
The three lead actors of this film worked together for the first and only time.
- #040
The song "Mangta Hain Kya" sampled INXS's "Devil Inside".
- #041
The child actor's appearance became choreographer Ahmed Khan's first film as an independent choreographer.
- #042
RGV deleted 2 scenes from the film before shooting: Jackie's flashback about losing his love, and the fight between Aamir and Jackie in the second half after Urmila's drowning and Jackie's failure to jump in to save her.
- #043
The A. R. Rahman song "Babu Lo Chal Gaya" from the film Khel Khiladi Ka has the same music as the song "Yaaro Sun Lo Zara" in Rangeela.
- #044
A. R. Rahman drew inspiration from the intro music of X LNC's (a famous Bhangra group from the UK) "Kudiye Punjab Diye". He used the sitar music for the intro of "Hai Rama" from Rangeela.
- #045
In real life, Jackie Shroff closely resembles Munna in his manner of speech and behavior, and is famous for his funny quotes in typical Mumbaiya slang.
- #046
The music at 0:06 in The Spirit of Rangeela was later sampled by Anu Malik for the music of the song Sabhi Ko Daulat Ka Chakkar for the film Iski Topi Uske Sar.
- #047
Rangeela Re- Wild Style Mix appeared on Magic Mike's album A Bombay Rebel. This was in 1996.
- #048
Bollywood Brass Band made an instrumental version of all the songs titled "Rangeela Medley". This was on the Rahmania album.
- #049
Ashwini Bhave was in the running for the lead role.
- #050
The film's cinematographer, WB Rao, also played a small role as the cinematographer of director Steven Kapoor (played by Gulshan Grover).
- #051
The opening drum beat of the song Phek Hawa Mein Ek Chumma from Ram Jaane is the same as the opening drum beat of Spirit of Rangeela from the film Rangeela. It was later used in the intro of the song "Awaara Main Badal" from Koi Mere Dil Se Pooche. It is also heard at 0:52 in Usha Uthup's song Hari Om Hari from the Usha Uthup Mega Mix album. The same drum appears at 0:05 in the song Mere Sanam from Gupt. The original source of the drum sound was taken at 45:51. The CD/program is Best Service XX Large 1500 Classic Drumloops. This was a CD/program that music composers used for music and sounds.
- #052
Sanjay Dutt was also considered for Jackie Shroff's role.
- #053
S. Bhattacharya reused the arrangement of Mangta Hai Kya in the song Phenk Hawa Mein Ek Chumma from Ram Jaane.
- #054
INXS's Devil Inside (Remix Version) from Mercury 1987, remixers: François Kevorkian, Michael Hutchence. This resembled A. R. Rahman's Mangta Hain Kya.
- #055
Alishan, the only cinema hall in Mumbra on the outskirts of Mumbai, opened with this film.
- #056
For the song Tanha, Urmila wore Jackie Shroff's ganjee (vest) while running on the beach.
- #057
Urmila's character is a background dancer, while the arrogant film actress who displays all-star attitude on the sets is played by Shefali Shah in one of her earlier roles. RGV showed how the Indian film industry, film stars and their families sabotage film shoots with tantrums and cause huge losses for filmmakers.
- #058
Rangeela was released in theaters at the Regal Theatre located at 3215 Kingsway in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
- #059
Rangeela drew some inspiration from Jeetendra's film Mere Humsafar.
- #060
Saroj Khan had to step away due to date issues. Ram Gopal Varma saw the work Ahmed had done as an assistant and wanted him to take over the choreography. Ahmed was hesitant to leave Saroj Khan but ultimately had to, as he had received too many offers after Rangeela.
- #061
Ram Gopal Varma described Keera Vani, now known as M. M. Kreem, as a music director for the first time on a Telugu film he was making called Kshana Kshanam. One day while eating lunch at the recording studio, Rickey, a rhythm programmer then working with M. M. Kreem, told him he should work with a very talented keyboardist named Dilip. This was the first time Varma heard of A. R. Rahman. He did not take Rickey up on it. Much later, long before the film's release, when he heard the songs of Mani Ratnam's Roja at Ratnam's house, he was stunned by the sheer originality of the songs' orchestration and melodies. He immediately wanted to sign Rahman for a film he was making with Sanjay Dutt called Nayak and for Rangeela. However, his investors preferred Anu Malik because they thought the success of the music in Roja's dubbed version was a coincidence. They felt that kind of music would not work in Hindi, and pointed to the fact that A. R. had not been signed by any top Hindi filmmaker after Roja as proof. They said Anu Malik was at the peak of his form after Baazigar and that they would get a much bigger price for the soundtrack. For Rangeela, Varma struck a trade with them: if they let him use A. R., he would sign Anu Malik. Sanjay Dutt was not very interested in Rangeela, since Khalnayak had made him a much bigger star than Aamir at the time. After 20 days of shooting for Nayak, Sanjay was arrested in the serial blasts case and the film was shelved (much later Varma made Nayak's script as Sarkar).
- #062
Ram Gopal Verma wanted an erotic-style song like Kaate Nahi Katte from Mr. India (1987). He asked A. R. Rahman to compose a song for a sequence between Jackie Shroff and Urmilla. The song turned out to be Hai Rama. Ram Gopal Verma was not satisfied with the result, but after the film's release it became a song that topped the charts.
- #063
Ram Gopal Verma was not happy about Hai Ram being included in the film in the early stages.
- #064
In the song Mangta Hai Kya, Aamir Khan kissed Urmila Matondkar twice.
- #065
Hai Rama from Rangeela had a Pakistani version in the film Miss Klashankoff (1997). The song was titled Uff Tauba Tune Kya Kiya by Saira Naseem.
- #066
Aamir was upset that no conflict arises at the end of the film, that there is no problem with the girl's parents and everything is too good, but RGV tried to convince him and Aamir agreed.
- #067
According to RGV, this film, like most of his films, was not written and many of its scenes were improvised.
- #068
Ram Gopal Varma had met Ismail Darbar while struggling as a violinist. He told him the story of Rangeela. Ismail was excited and composed a song. However, when Varma heard Roja he got greedy and signed A. R. Rahman. Ismail never forgave Varma for this.
- #069
Jackie Shroff and Ram Gopal Varma later worked together on Sarkar 3 (2017), almost 22 years after this film.
- #070
Rangeela Re had a Pakistani version titled Ayega Maina Ke Paas Ayega from Karam Data.
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