Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the 2002 period romantic drama Devdas starred three superstars Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Madhuri Dixit in the leading roles. The film was centered on three characters - Devdas, a young man from a wealthy Bengali family, his childhood love Paro, and a courtesan named Chandramukhi. While Shah Rukh played the titular character, Aishwarya and Madhuri played Paro and Chandramukhi, respectively.
With a massive budget of Rs 50 crore, Devdas was the most expensive Indian film ever made at the time. The film faced several production delays during its making. The producer Bharat Shah was arrested by the Mumbai underworld when it was alleged that he had taken money from the Mumbai underworld to finance the film. The set of Devdas was burnt three times and two crew members also died on separate accidents that happened on the sets.
Even after its troubled production, Devdas had its premiere at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival in the Out of Competition section on May 23, and was widely released globally on July 12. The film went on to become a massive blockbuster earning Rs 168 crore at the box office worldwide, and became the highest-grossing Indian film of the year.
The Sanjay Leela Bhansali also won five National Film Awards for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment, Best Female Playback Singer to Shreya Ghoshal for Bairi Piya, Best Production Design to Nitin Chandrakant Desai, Best Costume Deign to Neeta Lulla, Abu Jani, Sandeep Khosla, Reza Shariffi, and Best Choreography to Saroj Khan for Dola Re Dola.
The film was also sent to the Oscars as India's official entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, but failed to be nominated among the final five. It was nominated at the Best Film Not in the English Language at the BAFTA Awards, but lost out to the Spanish psychological drama Talk To Her.
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