Deewane (दीवाने)
Deewane (दीवाने) is a 2000 Hindi-language action romance film directed by Harry Baweja and produced by Paramjeet Baweja under the banner S.P. Creations, starring Ajay Devgn in a double role as a police officer and his lookalike, alongside Urmila Matondkar and Mahima Chaudhry.1 • 2 It was released in India on 11 August 2000, the same day as Dhadkan, and finished as a box office flop.3 • 4
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 11 August 2000, India; Hindi language1 |
| Director / producer | Harry Baweja / Paramjeet Baweja, S.P. Creations2 |
| Lead cast | Ajay Devgn (Vishal / Arun), Urmila Matondkar (Sapna), Mahima Chaudhry (Pooja)2 |
| Music | Sanjeev-Darshan; lyrics by Sameer; story by Anees Bazmee, screenplay by Karan Razdan2 |
| Runtime | 164 minutes per Box Office India; other listings give 2h 44m, 175 minutes, or 2h 51m4 • 5 • 6 |
| Box office | Budget ₹85,000,000; total nett gross ₹69,500,000; worldwide gross ₹122,518,750; verdict: Flop4 |
| Distribution | Yash Raj Films (International)1 |
Spoilers
Plot
Inspector Vishal (Ajay Devgn) is a hard-working, committed police officer engaged to his childhood friend Sapna (Urmila Matondkar), who resents how his devotion to work crowds out their time together.7 While raiding a boat, Vishal is shot and slips into a coma.4
To keep criminals from learning that Vishal is incapacitated, his superior, Commissioner Chavan (Shivaji Satam), recruits Arun, a petty thief who happens to be Vishal's lookalike, and trains him to take Vishal's place; the Times of India's contemporary review puts the price paid to Arun at Rs. 1 million (Rs. 10 lakhs).4 • 7 Sapna, unaware of the switch, falls in love with the "new" Vishal, and Arun falls in love with her in turn.4 The real Vishal eventually wakes from his coma, ending Sapna's romance with Arun.4 A parallel thread follows Pooja (Mahima Chaudhry), a singer who has never confessed her feelings to the man she longs for.1
Cast and production
Ajay Devgn played both Vishal and Arun; per a 2025 retrospective, this was the third double role of his career, after Hindustan Ki Kasam and Gair.3 The supporting cast included Paresh Rawal as Lekhraj, Vishal's uncle, Gulshan Grover and Aashif Sheikh as Vishal's cousins, Reema Lagoo as Vishal's mother, Johnny Lever as Okay, Arun's friend, Tiku Talsania as Sapna's father, and Padmini Kapila as Sapna's mother, Dhanwanti.2 • 8
Casting and on-set events. Urmila Matondkar was not the production's first choice for Sapna; the role was first offered to Karisma Kapoor, who turned it down.3 During the shoot, Mahima Chaudhry was injured in an accident while traveling to the set of Dil Kya Kare, in which 67 pieces of glass struck her face; Ajay Devgn and Kajol supported her and her recovery was kept quiet so that her signed films would not be lost.3 A dispute followed on the Deewane set when Chaudhry declined a close-up because of her facial injury and the director would not agree; Devgn intervened to defer the scene, after which media rumors of an affair between the two spread.3
Shooting locations listed by the Cinemaazi film archive include Film City, Filmistan, Mehboob Studios, National Standard Mills, and Malshej Ghat in India, plus Australia and New Zealand; the film was certified U/A by the CBFC on 1 July 2000 (certificate CIL/2/24/2000-MUM).9 In Australia it was classified M with the consumer advice "Medium level violence" on 11 August 2000.6
Music
The score was composed by the duo Sanjeev-Darshan, with lyrics by Sameer.2 The soundtrack's songs were performed by playback singers including Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik, Kumar Sanu, Sukhwinder Singh, Jaspinder Narula, Hariharan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, and Anuradha Paudwal; tracks include "Aye Dil" in male and female versions, "Churao Na Dil", "Deewane", "Ishq Da Gunjal", "Jogiya", "Qayamat", and "Sajna Ne Phool Marya".10 The audio cassette also included dialogues from the film, a practice Harry Baweja had used on his earlier films Dilwale (1994) and Diljale (1996).3
Box office
Deewane opened on 245 screens and clashed directly with Dhadkan, which released the same day and featured Mahima Chaudhry alongside Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, and Shilpa Shetty; Dhadkan won the box office contest.3 • 4 Against a budget of ₹8,50,00,000, the film earned a first day of ₹73,00,000, a first weekend of ₹2,09,00,000, and a first week of ₹3,70,00,000, closing with a total nett gross of ₹69,500,000 in India, an India gross of ₹11,68,00,000, overseas gross of $125,000, and a worldwide gross of ₹122,518,750 on about 4,849,000 footfalls; Box Office India's verdict was Flop.4 Sacnilk's compilation gives slightly different figures, an India net of ₹67.9 million (₹6.79 crore) and a worldwide total of ₹121.5 million (₹12.15 crore) against a budget of ₹80 million (₹8.00 crore), with the same Flop verdict.11
Reception
Contemporary and retrospective assessments were unfavorable. The Times of India's review a few days after release called the film slow-paced for a Harry Baweja film, criticized the execution of the story, and noted melodramatic stretches, while crediting the performances, particularly Devgn's acting and Matondkar's turn.7 Film Information's 2000 review judged Anees Bazmee's story interesting but ruined by a shoddy screenplay by Karan Razdan, and called Baweja's direction ordinary, while praising several songs including "Ae dil", "Qayamat", "Churao na dil", and "Jab ishq da" as excellently tuned.12 On aggregate databases the film sits low: IMDb records 4.7/10 from 722 votes, and Rotten Tomatoes shows a Popcornmeter audience score of 29% from more than 50 ratings with no critic reviews counted.13 • 5
The film has remained available in home and digital formats long after its theatrical run: Yash Raj Films handled international distribution, and the title later streamed on Amazon Prime Video (April to October 2021) and appeared on the Apple TV Store in 2017 to 2018, though JustWatch listed it as unavailable to stream in India as of its most recent check.1 • 14 A full upload on the Goldmines YouTube channel in 2021 drew over 19 million views.15
References
- Deewane Movie – Release Date, Cast & Crew Details, Yash Raj Films
- Deewane – Cast & Crew, Box Office India
- Ajay Devgn's 'Deewane' Turns 25: Behind-the-Scenes stories, Box office clash & on-set controversies, PeepingMoon (11 August 2025)
- Deewane – Movie Story & Box Office, Box Office India
- Deewane, Rotten Tomatoes
- DEEWANE, Australian Classification
- Deewane review, Urvashi Ashar, The Times of India (15 August 2000)
- Deewane, TheTVDB.com
- Deewane (2000) – Movie Details, Cinemaazi
- Deewane Movie (2000) – Release Date, Review, Cast, Trailer, Songs, Gadgets 360
- Deewane (2000-08-11) – Review, Rating & Box Office Collection, Sacnilk
- FLASHBACK | 12 August, 2025 (From our issue dated 12th August, 2000), Film Information
- Deewane (2000), IMDb
- Deewane streaming: where to watch movie online?, JustWatch
- Deewane (HD) Bollywood Hindi Film, Goldmines, YouTube (18 October 2021)
Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films of the 2000s › Action and thriller films
Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026
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