Tanuja Chandra: Sangharsh has gone on to become somewhat of a cult film over the decades

Sangharsh, co-written by Mahesh Bhatt, gave Hindi cinema one of its most iconic villains in Ashutosh Rana’s character Lajja Shankar Pandey. At the time of its release, the film was compared to Silence of the Lambs (1991), but the cast and crew stated that while some scenes may appear similar, there was no actual resemblance. Director Tanuja Chandra, who made Sangharsh after Dushman, speaks to us on the film’s 25th anniversary and what she would change if she were to remake it.

Sangharsh has gone on to become somewhat of a cult film over the decades: Director Tanuja Chandra
At the time Sangharsh released it was well received but it has gone on to become somewhat of a cult film over the decades. That’s happened with several of my films and it only makes me conclude that perhaps it was somewhat ahead of its time. For sure, films that revolved around female protagonists were very rare. As were female Directors - I could count them on one hand. I didn’t let that intimidate me or stop me from making movies. But yes, one had to create faith in people that I could do it. There was further skepticism because my subjects were female stories. And those weren’t taken seriously enough as commercially viable by producers. So I knew if I worked within a controlled budget and with efficiency, I would receive funding. And that’s what I did. My early films had Mahesh and Pooja Bhatt as producers and it helped that they had immense faith in me.
I haven’t seen Sangharsh for a long time but when I see its songs, I treasure (besides the beautiful tunes) the sheer energy on screen, the powerful performances and also the theme of the film that speaks against superstition. However I do regret making the horror of the antagonist come across him in the guise of a Transgender person. I wish I had done that differently. The character wasn’t trans of course, and was wickedly using the Trans avatar of dressed in a saree as a way to overpower the female protagonist - I do wish in the writing of the film, we had thought of another way of scaring her and not this.

During the making of the film, in one of his interviews with Ashutosh Rana, Akshay Kumar said, "I think the climax of this film can easily be compared with that of some of the top films. There is no fight or action in the climax; it is just between me, Preity, and Ashutosh."

‘If I had to, I’d do it again with relish, albeit with some changes in the script’
"There were some things I would do differently now, but all filmmakers have their journey. All storytellers change, as they should. Were I telling this same story today, my protagonist would possibly be more nuanced. And while she might still have some of that rage within her, the grief from her past, perhaps as a Filmmaker I would also choose to show other, inner longings. I feel proud that Preity’s character did have deeper sorrows and a sense of ambition to create a niche for herself in a mostly male line of work, and at the same time I would’ve possibly had her depend less on Akshay’s character to achieve success. These are all learnings and filmmakers must continuously expand their worldview, and work on their art. That said, I loved making Sangharsh. I enjoyed every bit of it enormously and I would do it all over again if I had to!"

‘Love for the film has only grown’
Tanuja says, “Love for the film has only grown. Its fans have increased in huge numbers. The songs are so popular till this day. Ashutosh Rana’s performance is hailed as one of the best villains in Hindi cinema and many consider this one of Akshay’s and Preity’s best work - Akshay himself has said this. It’s one of my films that has diverse fans, across the world. And that’s pretty amazing."
DID YOU KNOW?
 Sangharsh is the only film where Preity Zinta portrayed a cop.
 At one point, the director thought of naming the film Andhera among a couple of other names
 This film was made after the success of Tanuja Chandra’s critically acclaimed movie Dushman (1998), which also featured Ashutosh Rana as the villain (Inputs by IMDb)

In the film, Preity plays a cop with a troubled childhood. Recently, when asked which of her films she’d want to make a sequel of, she replied, “Sangharsh for sure”