Kapoor, Bachchan, Raakhee and Rehman had earlier starred together in Chopra's previous release, Kabhi Kabhie, two years prior.
Trishul was the second-highest grossing Indian film of 1978, after Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, which also starred Bachchan and Raakhee. The movie has been remade in Tamil as Mr. Bharath and in Telugu as Mr. Bharath.
Rishi Kapoor was offered the role of Ravi, which was eventually played by Sachin. Kapoor declined the offer, triggering animosity between him and Salim-Javed.[3]
Plot
In 1953, Raj Kumar Gupta (Sanjeev Kumar) abandons his girlfriend, Shanti (Waheeda Rehman), to marry a wealthy heiress, Kamini (Gita Siddharth), whose father, Seth Dindayal, makes him an equal partner in his business. After Gupta's marriage, Shanti visits him to congratulate him, with the news that she is pregnant with his child. She refuses Gupta's offer of help, realising that he is only doing so to assuage his guilty conscience, and leaves the city. Shanti gives birth to a baby boy named Vijay and raises him as a single mother.
25 years later, in 1978, Shanti passes away and the adult Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) arrives in Delhi to seek revenge by ruining his father's business and family connections. At the same time, Gupta and Kamini's son, Shekhar (Shashi Kapoor) returns from abroad to take his place in his father's company. Shekhar and his younger sister, Kusum (Poonam Dhillon), who are Vijay's half-siblings, are caught in the crossfire of Vijay's revenge. Vijay crosses paths with Geeta (Raakhee), the devoted secretary to Gupta. He tries to bribe Geeta to receive details of Gupta's tender bids, but she refuses to accept it. Nevertheless, the two start to get closer to each other. Vijay bribes Gupta's another employee, Bhandari (Yunus Parvez), and receives the information that he could not from Geeta. Bhandari's betrayal nets Vijay's company, Shanti Constructions, a lot of profits and results in losses for Gupta's company. On seeing Vijay and Geeta together one day, Gupta assumes that Geeta has sold him out and fires her. When Vijay learns about this, he exposes Bhandari as the real culprit to Gupta and Shekhar only to clear Geeta's name and hires her to work at his own company.
Vijay becomes a successful businessman quickly and is soon celebrating the second anniversary of Shanti Constructions with a huge party. He tells Geeta to invite the crème de la crème of the city, especially Gupta. At the party, Vijay meets Sheetal Verma (Hema Malini), the daughter and general manager of P. L. Verma (Iftekhar), who is also Shekhar's girlfriend. He tries to create differences between Shekhar and Sheetal. Soon, a fierce rivalry begins between Vijay and Gupta, in which both are willing to sacrifice their wealth and integrity. Vijay even encourages Kusum to marry her lover, Ravi (Sachin Pilgaonkar), against her father's wishes. As a result, a furious Shekhar has a fight with Vijay, but Geeta intervenes and reveals to Shekhar that Vijay is his brother. Shekhar and Kusum both leave their father's house in shame. Shekhar asks Vijay to give Kusum away at her marriage as her oldest brother, causing an enraged Gupta to hire Balwant Rai (Prem Chopra) to kill Vijay.
Meanwhile, Vijay visits Gupta to claim victory and confronts him over the injustice caused to his mother, revealing that Shanti has died and that he is his and Shanti's illegitimate son. A shocked Gupta tries to rescind the order that he has given Balwant, but Balwant and his henchmen have already kidnapped Ravi in order to reach out to Vijay. With the assistance of Shekhar and Gupta, Vijay successfully rescues Ravi. During the confrontation, Balwant attempts to shoot Vijay, but Gupta intervenes and takes the bullet for his son, before the police arrive at the scene and arrest Balwant and his henchmen. With his dying breath, Gupta pleads for forgiveness from Vijay, who forgives him and unites with the Gupta family. In addition, Vijay and Shekhar change the name of Vijay's company from Shanti Constructions to Shanti-Raj Constructions.
The soundtrack for this movie is credited for bringing the three legends of Indian film music – Kishore Kumar, Mangeshkar and Yesudas – together in a single song, "Mohabbat Bade Kaam Ki Cheez Hai".
In India, the film grossed ₹110 million[5] ($13.4 million),[6] with net earnings of ₹55 million.[5] It was declared a 'super hit' at the box office, becoming the second-highest grossing Indian film of 1978, below Muqaddar Ka Sikandar and above Don,[5] both also starring Bachchan.
Overseas in the Soviet Union, the film released in May 1980, with 529 prints.[7] It sold 29.7 million tickets at the Soviet box office,[8] grossing an estimated 7.43million Rbls[9] ($11.7 million,[10] or ₹92 million),[11] bringing the film's worldwide gross to approximately ₹202 million ($25.1 million).
Adjusted for inflation, its Indian gross is equivalent to $62.6 million (₹4.64 billion) and its Soviet gross is equivalent to $43.3 million (₹3.21 billion), for a total inflation-adjusted worldwide gross of $105.9 million (₹7.84 billion).
In terms of footfalls, the film sold an estimated 43million tickets in India,[5][12] and 29.7 million tickets in the Soviet Union,[8] for an estimated total of 72.7 million tickets sold worldwide.
Ziya Us Salam of The Hindu in his review of Yeh Hai Jalwa (2002) called it "a spoof of Trishul".
Popular culture
The movie was heavily referenced in Anurag Kashyap's 2012 crime filmGangs of Wasseypur.[13] A Sinhala film with a similar story line was made with the title Hello Shyama by Director M.S. Anandan, starring Gamini Fonseka in the role of Sanjeev, and Shyama Anandan, daughter of M.S. Anandan, in the role played by Amitabh Bachchan.
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