This Shah Rukh Khan blockbuster had 17 songs, 8 were remixes; director bullied actress, stopped her from working with others, then...

Starring Shah Rukh Khan and debutants Mahima Chaudhry and Apurva Agnihotri in the leading roles, the 1997 musical romantic drama Pardes was directed by Subhash Ghai. Made in Rs 10 crore, the film ran for over 60 weeks in the theatres and became a blockbuster. It earned four times its budget and amassed over Rs 40 crore gross worldwide. One of the major reasons behind its success was its superlative soundtrack by Nadeem-Shravan.

Pardes had a total of 17 songs - nine original and eight remixes in its soundtrack. Do Dil Mil Rahe Hain, Meri Mehbooba, and Yeh Dil Deewana are still popular today. The other tracks included Jahan Piya Wahan Main, Nahin Hona Tha, I Love My India, I Love My India (Female Version), My First Day In USA, the Title Music, and the remixes of all the songs.

23 years after its release, Mahima Chaudhry slammed Subhash Ghai for bullying her and stopping her to work with others. Sharing her experience of working in her debut film Pardes, the actress told Bollywood Hungama in 2020, "I was bullied by Mr. Subhash Ghai. He even took me to the court and wanted me to cancel my first show. It was quite stressful. He sent a message to all the producers that nobody should work with me! If you pick up one of the issues of Trade Guide magazine in 1998 or 1999, there was an ad that he had given which stated that if anybody wanted to work with me, that person would have to contact him. Otherwise, it would be a breach of contract. However, there was no such contract which said that I had to seek his permission."

She also named the only four people in Bollywood who supported her then as she added, "Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt, David Dhawan and Rajkumar Santoshi were the only four people who stood by me. They all told me to stay strong. David Dhawan called and told me that, 'Don't worry and don’t let him bully you.' Apart from these four people, I didn’t receive a call from anyone else."

Responding to her accusations, Subhash Ghai had released a statement that read, "I am amused reading this news. Mahima and I are very good friends till date and are still in touch through messages. She is a very nice and mature woman of today. She recently shared on how she gets welcomed at every event with a song from Pardes, I Love My India even after 23 years. Yes, there was a small conflict in 1997 post the release of Pardes. My company did send her a show cause notice for flouting a clause in our agreement. Media and industry reacted in a big way and so I withdrew and cancelled her contract with Mukta."

"After 3 years she came to me with her family and apologised for her impulsive reaction. I forgave her and thereafter we became friends again. She is jovial good person I trust. She must be right in feeling that she was bullied when asked by someone. Actually I admire her great gesture when she did a guest appearance in a song in my last film Kanchi in 2015", the filmmake concluded.

Meanwhile, apart from Shah Rukh, Mahima, and Apurva, Pardes also starred a talented ensemble cast comprising of Amrish Puri, Alok Nath, Dina Pathak, Himani Shivpuri, Pawan Malhotra, Smita Jaykar, Padmavati Rao, and Aditya Narayan as a child actor. The film also had the now famous choreographer-director Remo D'Souza as a background dancer in the song Meri Mehbooba.

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