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The Story Behind the Book of Aashiqui (1990): From Mahesh Bhatt to Nadeem-Shravan



Mahesh Bhatt is an acclaimed and popular film director, producer and screenwriter. In addition to the landmark films Arth (1982), Saaransh (1984), Janam (1985), Daddy (1989), Awaargi (1990) and Zakhm (1998), his work as director and screenwriter includes commercial hits such as Aashiqui (1990), Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin (1991) and Sadak (1991). After he retired as director in 1999, he has written and produced several successful films, among them, Raaz (2002), Jism (2003) and Murder (2004). Mahesh Bhatt is also the author of two books: U.G. Krishnamurti: A Life and A Taste of Life: The Last Days of U.G. Krishnamurti.




book of Aashiqui (1990)



Anu, who is quite active on social media, wrote on her official Facebook account: "Finally guys, Hooray! A 'Never-say-die-story'. Bigger than a Bollywood blockbuster, my unpredictable life, will be out in stores next month. Go grab a copy of 'Anusual':)___*"


In an interview in 2013, Anu mentioned that her book "Anusual" contains a chapter titled "Excessive fame and the mother f****r", in which she shares some low phases of her life, stalkers and stardom, reported IANS.


My writing is infused with compassion and hope. My first book was well received. I also narrated it in my own voice; an audiobook was out recently owing to the popularity of the book. Since childhood I have been a great reader. I admire writers like Gustave Flaubert and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.


It's one of those rare days the rain refuses to stop in Delhi; Anu Aggarwal is on a visit to the city to promote her new book, Anusual: Memoir of a Girl Who Came Back from the Dead. As she walks into the building, she is light years away from the sultry, sexy siren of Aashiqui, the 1990 film that propelled her from a Delhi University sociology graduate to a Bollywood starlet. In tight fitting denims, jacket and an aubergine top, she tries to trigger the attention she used to get when younger.


The ordeal gave her broken bones, brain damage and a palsy-ridden body. Self-absorbed and whimsical is how she comes across in the book, which is detailed when it comes to her sexual and spiritual experience but vague when it comes to life-changing experiences. Since her recovery she has been focused on self-improvement and yoga, travelling across the country in a self-imposed sanyas.


Tantric sex is amazing in a spiritual context as it can be used as a propellant for self-realization when performed correctly. In simple words, it means when you can transcend the gratification principle, which normal sexual activity thrives on. To perform it is not easy. It requires a set of some difficult purification exercises for the body and mind before you can actually perform tantric sex. I was to write a book on it.


After an initial hesitation, she gave in to the attractions of Hindi cinema with Aashiqui. In three years, she played the evil nanny in Khalnayika, a poor copy of The Hand That Rocks The Cradle. She was directed by Mani Ratnam in Thiruda Thiruda. A near-fatal accident left her in a coma. Once she came out of it, she found new direction in yoga and spirituality. More than two chapters are dedicated to her life in a yoga ashram and her relationship with the resident guru, fraught with admiration and romantic tension. In the most tedious chapters of the book, new-age spirituality is an antidote to soul-killing fame.


Tell us about the book you are writing about your experiences?I have been writing personal diaries since I was 11 years old. Like Sylvia Plath, I am a confessional poet-writer, though I am quite the opposite from the alienation and self-destruction she had in her work. After the near fatal accident, doctors had resigned on my life. I miraculously self-healed and made the nearly impossible, possible. Through my second book, I want to bring hope and inner joy to people, in the dark climate of today.


Vandana Vasudevan is the author of the books "Urban Villager: Life in an Indian satellite town" and the newly released "Tough Customer". This column will mainly explore themes on urbanism, civic issues, how our cities expand; how we use urban spaces and the experiences we have as city dwellers, especially as urban women. Vandana studied in the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and spent several years in leading corporates. She holds a Masters in Urbanism from the University of Pierre Mendes, France. LESS ... MORE


Shravan Rathod of the famous composer-duo Nadeem Shravan, who died of Covid-19 in Mumbai at 66 on April 22, will be best remembered for having brought the melody back in the Hindi movies in the early nineties along with his partner, with a string of musical hits, including the trend-setting Aashiqui (1990), which remains the largest-selling film album in the history of Bollywood.


Even though other composers like Anu Malik and Jatin-Lalit too stormed the Hindi music industry in the 1990s, the decade truly belonged to Nadeem-Shravan, thanks to their big hits such as Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin (1990), Phool Aur Kaante (1991), Sadak (1991), Damini (1993), Dilwale (1994), Barsaat (1995), Raja (1995), Pardes (1997), Dhadkan (2000), all with superhit numbers.


The original Aashiqui boy Rahul Roy recently chatted with us for our segment Spotlight. The actor, who attained overnight stardom with Mahesh Bhatt starrer Aashiqui (1990), opened up on walking away from films, taking a sabbatical, marriage, insecurities, being an outsider, Mahesh Bhatt and so much more. He reiterated, 'he is not behind stardom, but only wants to stay relevant with his craft'. Rahul started off huge with Aashiqui but later lost the steam following a few failures. But, the actor now endeavors to pick up different projects which he is "enjoying" a lot.


She has published widely both in the field of post-colonialism and literature, as well as on feminist issues. Her books include The Colonial Rise of the Novel (Routledge, 1993) and Infinite Variety: Women in Society and Literature (University Press Limited, Dhaka, 1996). She is a contributing editor for Feminist Review, for which she has edited a special issue entitled South Asian Feminisms: Negotiating New Terrains. (March 2009). She has edited a book entitled Complex Terrains: Islam, Culture and Women in Asia (Routledge, March 2013) and co-edited several books including Infinite Variety: Women in Society and Literature (UPL, 1994) and Other Englishes: Essays on Commonwealth Writing (UPL, 1991). She is a member of the editorial board of Journal of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies as well as a member of the Board of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society. Her current work is based on research and writing around the cultural history of women in Bangladesh.


Kumkum Sangari is the William F. Vilas Research Professor of English and the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. She has been a Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi; a Visiting Fellow at Yale University, Delhi University and Jadavpur University; and a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago, Central European University, University of London (SOAS), University of Erfurt and Ambedkar University. She has published extensively on British, American and Indian literature, the gendering of South Asian medieval devotional traditions, nationalist figures such as M.K.Gandhi, Bombay cinema, televisual memory, feminist art practice, and several contemporary gender issues such as personal law, widow immolation, domestic labour, the beauty industry, son selection, commercial surrogacy, and communal violence. She is the author of Solid Liquid: A Transnational Reproductive Formation (2015) and Politics of the Possible: Essays on Gender, History, Narratives, Colonial English (1999). She has co-edited several books including Recasting Women and, most recently, has edited Arc Silt Dive: The Works of Sheba Chhachhi (2016) and Trace Retrace: Paintings, Nilima Sheikh (2013).


Aniket Jaaware is a professor in the Department of English, School of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Humanities and Social Sciences in Shiv Nadar University, India. He is a widely-published scholar with research interests on Literary Theory, Translation Studies, F & SF, 19th Century Maharashtra, and elements of European Philosophy. Some of his books include, Touch: A Study of Caste (under revision for Fordham University Press, New York), Kale-Pandhare Asphut Lekh, A Collection Critical Essays in Marathi (Pune: Hermes Prakashan, 2011) and Simplifications: An Introduction to Structuralism and Post-structuralism (New Delhi, Orient BlackSwan Impression, 2009 (re-print) besides articles in books and many journals. Among other national and international recognitions, he has been a Tagore Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, 2014 and ICCR India Rotating Chair, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany 2011.


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