How ‘Aashiqui’ Let Its Women Win
More than just a hit soundtrack, the 1990 film gave us a working mom, a rising model, and a man who had to earn both their love.
Ahead of its release in 1990, Aashiqui proved many things. It launched two new stars with so little PR that a jacket shielded the actors’ faces on every poster and cassette. Its music was such a hit, months before its release on July 22, that they stopped counting once sales surpassed 20 million; what was the point in measuring Bollywood’s best-ever selling soundtrack?
The Mahesh Bhatt movie, produced by music label T-Series, made actors Rahul Roy and Anu Aggarwal overnight celebrities, singers Kumar Sanu and Anuradha Paudwal household names, and changed Bollywood music forever. But at the crux of the film was a simple message: love happens between equals, and true love means pushing each other to greatness. In the 35 years since, many have tried but failed to recreate the magic of Aashiqui, an almost complete package that broke nearly every rule in the book at the time.