17 years ago, Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya released on July 15 and emerged as a hit at the box office. Starring Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sushmita Sen, Katrina Kaif and Arshad Warsi, the David Dhawan-directed comic caper pulled audiences to cinemas thanks to the fun quotient, music and star cast. This was also the first time that Salman and his then-girlfriend Katrina were cast together and the curiosity to see them together also played a role.
However, very few know that Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya came to the rescue of many office goers stuck in the 26/7 floods in Mumbai. For those who are not aware, on July 26, 2005, Mumbai and surrounding areas received an unprecedented 944 mm of rainfall within 24 hours. It led to the loss of lives and threw public transport and commuters’ lives out of gear. Trains and buses couldn’t move due to extreme waterlogging. The rains started at around noon time. As a result, many had already reached their workplaces by then. Thousands of people then had no choice but to spend the night in their offices since there was no way to go home.
Ajay Bhattacharya, a retired techie, was one such person who was stranded that fateful day. He told Bollywood Hungama, “My office was near Churchgate, and I used to live in Mira Road. This was a time when most offices were in South Mumbai. A lot of people couldn’t make it back home and were stranded in the town side. We learnt that the trains are shut and going home via road was out of the question. I and my colleagues decided to spend the night in our office. However, our offices were not designed for sleeping, for obvious reasons. We were not in the mood to sleep early. So, after having dinner, we decided to catch a movie at the nearby Eros cinema. The rains had stopped by then and there was hardly any waterlogging and walking to the cinema hall was not an issue.”
Ajay continued, “Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya’s night show was about to start. We bought the tickets. Shockingly, we saw that hundreds of stranded office goers had turned up at Eros! By the time the film started, the show was sold out. And mind you, Eros was a huge single-screen cinema. So, you can imagine how many people must be there.”
Ajay Bhattacharya then said, “The film was a timepass entertainer. Thanks to Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya, we forgot all our worries and hardships for 3 hours. I can never forget this experience ever.”
Even other single screen cinemas of South Mumbai that day recorded surprisingly great occupancies. An old timer told Bollywood Hungama, “Dus was in its third week on 26/7. It was playing in Minerva and New Empire, and got decent footfalls. Bunty Aur Babli was running in New Excelsior while Parineeta was in Liberty. These films had completed several weeks and yet, got some footfalls. Viruddh, starring Amitabh Bachchan, John Abraham and Sanjay Dutt, was playing in Novelty. It was released 5 days before 26/7 and was not doing that well due to the depressing subject. It also managed to find takers thanks to the floods that day.”
He added, “Then there was also the newly opened Inox multiplex in Nariman Point. Here all the latest releases were playing and Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya was the first choice as it had just completed 11 days and hence, many had not seen the film. Also, it was the perfect film as it was a light entertainer and just something you need after a long, harrowing, rainy day!”
He also revealed that “In the suburbs of Mumbai, the situation was different. Several areas faced electricity cuts. Hence, many theatres had to shut down after it began to rain. Chandan cinema played the last show at 3:30 pm and cancelled the evening and night shows.”
More Pages: Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya Box Office Collection , Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya Movie Review
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