Rajiv Rai on 32 Years of Mohra: From Tip Tip Barsa Paani to Naseeruddin Shah’s Blind Jindal, Revisiting the ’90s Blockbuster

Rajiv Rai doesn’t burst crackers either. Diwali for him is Lord Ram’s homecoming, and being an avid film buff, when not travelling or shooting, he heads to the theatres every Friday to catch the new releases, watching two, sometimes even three films a day. He’s looking forward to his friend Namit Malhotra’s Ramayana: Part 1. The epic extravaganza opens this Friday, along with Rai’s Mohra, which is re-releasing across the country after 32 years.

“A distributor who helped me re-release my 2025 film Zora this year on October 23, suggested bringing back one of our banner Trimurti Films’ retro blockbusters on Diwali, the first day of the Punjabi New Year and an auspicious date. It’s something I’ve always dreamt of, so even though we are coming two days before Lakshmi pujan, I’m super excited,” says the writer-director-editor, quick to dismiss competition with the Ranbir Kapoor-Sai Pallavi mythological, pointing out that Mohra will have a limited release, not even opening in the multiplexes.

Back in 1994, Rai recalls his film opening with a 4 am first show in a 400-seater theatre in Bihar. “It was a full house with ticket rates capped at Rs 8, a far cry from today’s exorbitant ticket prices. And another 200-300 ticketless viewers who had crashed the show sitting on the floor. Mohra was still the second-highest grossing film of the year,” he asserts.

Tip Tip to Mast Mast

While the filmmaker wants Ramayana: Part 1 to sets new box-office records, he would be happy to gets its overflow audience dancing to a Tu cheez badi hai mast mast and Tip tip barsa paani. Music, he admits, is an integral part of Hindi cinema, but songs can sometimes disrupt the narrative flow. “My composer, Viju Shah, and I stitched them in to take the story forward and Mohra was the second highest-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of the year,” informs Rai, revealing that Tip tip barsa paani’s eight-line mukhda was a departure for lyricist Anand Bakshi usual style. “But he loved my dad (producer-distributor Gulshan Rai) and so never refused a challenge I threw at him. Even when I wanted a double dose of “mast”, Bakshi saab obliged, giving me two evergreen chartbusters.”

Both songs however sparked controversies with critics insisting that the rain song was embarrassingly erotic and Tu cheez badi hai mast mast’s double entendres demeaning to women. Rai brushes away the allegations, reasoning that Mohra was an out-and-out masala movie. “So, the audience expected some chedchad when the lead pair is romancing in the rain, and the playful flirting continued into Tu cheez badi hai mast mast. Back then several double-meaning songs had worked, but we had no intentions of tapping into the vulgarity trend. The man usually makes the first move, taking the woman out on a date, holding her hand, gives her a peck; it’s part of the courtship ritual without which marriages would never happen. We were just taking that forward,” he explains, pointing out that the biggest validation is that for three decades, both songs have remained popular, Tip tip returning in Sooryavanshi and Tu cheez in Machine, the album still amongst the ‘100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks of All Time’.

Dada Thakur paved the way for Mohra…

Interestingly, Rai had set out to make Dada Thakur, a story about a grandfather and grandson, penned by Anees Bazmee. After finishing the screenplay, he approached Amitabh Bachchan who had spun blockbusters like Deewaar and Trishul for Trimurti Films. But Bachchan, at a crucial juncture in his career, refused the offer.

“Disappointed, I came home, wondering what I would do now. The next morning, I woke up and told my dad I’d make Mohra, a story I had. It was a 360-degree turn, from an emotional drama to an action thriller, but as always, dad told me to do whatever made me happy and I started working on the screenplay with Shabbir Boxwalla. Dad was the best producer I could have asked for, and as I would tell her, my films ran only because of my mother’s prayers,” Rai says emotionally.

How Naseer’s Jindal became blind

The first actor he approached was Naseeruddin Shah with whom he had worked earlier in Tridev and Vishwatma and was reassured his friend had no qualms playing a character with grey shades. The only problem was that media baron Sandeep Jindal suffers from a disability and Rai was undecided about whether to put him in a wheelchair or give him crutches. Naseer shared that as prep for Sai Paranjpye’s 1980 film Sparsh—a performance that won him the National Award—he had not only interacted with students of the Blind Relief Association, on whose visually challenged principal, Ajay Mittal, his character was modelled, but also walked around his house blindfolded. “No one can play a blind man better than me,” Naseer stated confidently and Rai immediately decided Jindal would be blind.

Best friend Suniel Shetty, was his choice for ‘killing machine’ Vishal Agnihotri with Akshay Kumar as Inspector Amar Saxena, the cop on his trail. “Suniel was like the second producer, always around to fix problems. And Akshay, driven by his desire for a blockbuster, would rehearse every action scene for two hours, I’ve never seen an actor work so hard physically. Filmmaking is team work and everyone on team Mohra was ahead of me. I only have the gift of imagination, the ability to visualize a story on screen, and thanks to that could pay back everyone’s trust,” he avers.

While Ramayana: Part 1 will showcase new technology in its scale, action and visual effects, Rai has simply used technology to remove pin holes from the negative, remaster and colour grade it. “But otherwise, it’s the original ’90s film. An ode to Akshay Kumar with whom I’ve never worked again, but hope to someday,” he smiles, acknowledging that if Mohra brings sparkle to the theatres this Diwali, we could have another retro blockbuster making a comeback.

“We shot with Divya Bharti for 10 days…”

Even though Raveena Tandon is known as the “mast mast” girl today, the original choice for the journalist Roma Singh was Divya Bharti. “She passed away after 10 days of shooting and dad suggested we take Raveena. All of Ravi Tandon’s films that he had distributed were superhits, so he would know what Trimurti Films could do for his daughter,” Rai flashbacks. They have never worked again, but he remembers the actress fondly as a sweet girl, laughing and joking on the sets, and a true professional in front of the camera. “Being the daughter of a director, she understood Bollywood cinema; what the scene demanded and the camera wanted. A talented and spontaneous actress, Raveena didn’t need too many rehearsals. The bonus was that she was also a fab dancer,” he raves, admitting he’d love to reunite with her too.