Bollywood's Famous Onscreen Rivalries

With India’s election fever at its peak, rivalry is in the air. And the movies reflect this well.

Conflict is the spice of Bollywood drama.

Be it the one between Juhi Chawla’s sly politician and Madhuri Dixit’s ferocious feminist in Gulaab Gang, the good versus evil contest between game protagonists Ra.One and G.One, Ranveer Singh-Arjun Kapoor’s friendship gone sour over who will win Priyanka Chopra’s heart in Gunday or Nargis Fakhri and Ileana D'Cruz's fight over Varun Dhawan in the upcoming film, Main Tera Hoon.

With India’s election fever at its peak, rivalry is in the air.

On that note, we look at the some of Bollywood’s famous instances of on-screen friction.

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In the never-ending match of spontaneous brilliance versus memorised genius, Aamir Khan’s Rancho takes on Omi Vaidya’s Chatur in 3 Idiots. The upshot is hilarious.

Political rivalry takes a poisonous turn as brothers, Arjun Rampal, Ranbir Kapoor on one side, Manoj Bajpayee and Ajay Devgn on another, get the better of one another in vicious power games.

Underworld gangs are founded on a slippery ground and fickle relationships.

Ram Gopal Varma’s fictional retelling of what goes wrong between too chummy mafia men -- Ajay Devgn and Vivek Oberoi and how they go against each other.

Anurag Kashyap’s desi Godfather packs in a vendetta theme that unfolds in two installments high on spiffy writing and sharp performances from its ensemble cast to depict the rivalry between the Khans (led by Manoj Bajpayee) and the prime culprit Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia).

They may have never crossed paths in Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s original novella but Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Paro (Aishwarya Rai) and Chandramukhi (Madhuri Dixit) indulge in a round of contrived possessiveness over the brooding, egoistic and sloshed love interest -- Devdas.

When off screen rivalry translates to on screen one, the result is nothing short of grand spectacle as witnessed during the heated banter between frenemies Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar in Subhash Ghai’s Saudagar.

Model School’s ‘pajama-chaaps’ take on reputed Rajput’s dudes in studies and sports in the eternal campus favourite, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander.

So we have Aamir Khan and his friends stand up to the rich kids, played by Deepak Tijori and his gang.

Clan-based hostility served Bollywood quite well back till the 1990s as J P Dutta demonstrates the impact of a swaggering Sanjay Dutt against a beefy Sunny Deol in the blatantly macho fest, Kshatriya.

Amrita Singh and Juhi Chawla are perfectly cast in conveying the quintessential clash of the kind, introvert kid sister against her extrovert, self-seeking older sibling over their tall, dark, handsome object of affection, namely Jackie Shroff, in the romantic triangle cum sibling rivalry, Aaina.

Farooque Sheikh and Naseeruddin Shah recreate the Hare and the Tortoise, the ancient rivalry between haughty ambition and composed steadiness while competing in professional and personal life in Sai Paranjpye’s classic Katha.