Hip Hip Hurray (film)


Hip Hip Hurray is a 1984 Hindi sports drama film directed by Prakash Jha with screenplay by Gulzar. It had Raj Kiran and Deepti Naval as leads and debutant Nikhil Bhagat. The film was the directorial debut of Prakash Jha.

Plot

A computer engineer named Sandeep Chowdhary is waiting to start his first job, so he takes up a temporary job as a sports instructor in Bishop Westcott Boys' School at Ranchi, where he encounters an apathetic school principal and develops a relationship with a history teacher named Anuradha Roy. Eventually, he leads the football team to victory.

Cast

The film had music by Vanraj Bhatia and lyrics by Gulzar.
Hip Hip Hurray is featured in Avijit Ghosh's book, 40 Retakes: Bollywood Classics You May Have Missed.

Production

Prakash Jha was trying to raise funds for Damul, but failed to find financiers because of its bold subject matter. He then narrated the outline of Hip Hip Hurray to producer Manmohan Shetty. Shetty liked the idea of a sports film and with a proposed cast that included Anil Kapoor and Shabana Azmi, Jha was ready to make it. But 25 days before the principal photography was to begin, Anil Kapoor backed out and Azmi followed suit. Jha then came up with a different cast of Raj Kiran, Deepti Naval and Nikhil Bhagat. Gulzar has written the screenplay, dialogues as well as lyrics of the film.
Due to the small budget, the entire climax was shot with a single camera and this led to every single shot being filmed three or four times to give the feel of multiple angles.