Suspense Crime Sach Ka Dam
The villain with a big red bindi on his forehead, a nose ring, and a horrifying weeping villain wearing a saree was first shown on the screen of Indian cinema in the year 1999. The name of the film was ‘Sangharsh’. Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta were in the lead roles in this film. The characters of Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta were very strong, but the villain of this film who scared people by wagging his tongue was better than all. The name of this character who used to kidnap children by disguising himself as a woman was Gokul Pandit aka Lajja Shankar, he was a religious fanatic. This character believed in barbaric methods to achieve immortality. This role was played by Ashutosh Rana. This is also considered to be the most influential character of his career. Ashutosh Rana made such an impact on people with his look and mannerisms that even today people get scared after seeing him.
This is how I got the role of Lajja Shankar.
Ashutosh Rana brought Lajja Shankar’s evil intentions to life with his performance. His character in the film would cry whenever he felt pressured. Ashutosh Rana had made a special request to Mahesh Bhatt for this role, that too when Mahesh Bhatt pranked him. He says, ‘I was shooting in Hyderabad. I left it and ran to Mumbai to meet Bhatt, sir. I asked him how could he sign someone else. Either they audition me and then reject me or just say that I did not do justice to Dushman (1998). I will not let anyone else do this role. Bhatt sir laughed and said that since he had not met me for a long time, he was joking. Because if he had not done so, I would never have come. This role was written for me.’
The storyline was something like this.
When ‘Sangharsh’ was released, it was not a mainstream film, but today such a film is considered mainstream. Many people believe that ‘Sangharsh’ is a film inspired by ‘The Silence of the Lambs’. Akshay Kumar played the role of Professor Aman in the film. Preity Zinta was in the role of CBI officer Reet Oberoi. The story shows that Professor Aman is serving his days in jail, but to solve Lajja Shankar’s case, Reet takes the help of Professor Aman and exposes Lajja Shankar who kidnaps children. This film was made under the direction of Tanuj Chandra. The story of this film was written by Mahesh Bhatt. Rs 4 crore was spent in making this film and the film earned 9 crores worldwide. By the way, this film is counted among cult classic films.
