8 Things You Didn’t Know About Ram Gopal Varma’s Rangeela

It's been 25 years since Ram Gopal Varma's Rangeela, his love letter to the Mumbai film industry starring Urmila Matondkar, Aamir Khan, Gulshan Grover and Jackie Shroff released. Here are 8 anecdotes about the film's making:

1. The story was inspired by three people Varma knew during his college days. One of these was a thug-like guy who changed his style in an attempt to impress an upper-class girl. Aamir Khan's character, Munna, does the same in Rangeela.

2. He was also inspired by Hollywood films such as Singing In The Rain and The Sound of Music.

3. After choreographer Saroj Khan failed to show-up during filming, Varma asked Ahmed Khan to choreograph the rest of the songs.

4.  When Varma was dissatisfied with Urmila's look in the song 'Tanha Tanha', Jackie Shroff took off the white t-shirt he was wearing and gave it to her.

5. In the song 'Hai Rama', the sequence of Urmila running in a red outfit was inspired by a similar sequence in Francis Coppola's Dracula.

6. Gulshan Grover's character, Steven Kapoor, was based on director Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

7. When costume designer Neeta Lulla couldn't be in Hyderabad for the fittings, she would send her assistant instead. Varma eventually appointed her assistant to do the film. That assistant was Manish Malhotra and Rangeela was his first film project.

8. Varma didn't want Rangeela to end in darkness and so shot the last scene at dawn.