ENTER THE KHANS

Times were changing, romance was in the air, and in came a flotilla of new dreamboats, all dew-fresh and dimpled, changing the look and feel of Hindi cinema

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It wasn't the best of times at the movies, not by any stretch. The year 1985 kicked off with a monster hit, RK's Ram Teri Ganga Maili, and one will be hard-pressed to find any memory from that one except for cat-eyed Mandakini's wet sari turn under a waterfall.

Takeaways from the period bring three things to mind—grand romance, family dramas and the stirrings of a new K-K-K boy clan priming to take over Bollywood's reins. The Bollywood royalty Khans, Aamir (Qayamat se Qayamat Tak or QSQT) and Salman (Maine Pyar Kiya), were the first to break ground, with Delhi lad Shah Rukh taking his time to get to Baazigar via Deewana.

High romance was in vogue and all three had big hits with titles like Hum Aapke Hain Koun (the 1994 Salman film made it to the Rs 100 crore club then), Dil (Aamir) and Deewana (Shah Rukh). For relief, there was Shekhar Kapoor's