Nagina to Naagin 3: Why Do Indians Love Their Icchadhaari Snakes?

Great snakes! Shape-shifting snakes have been huge revenue-earners in the business of entertainment.

Sridevi in a still from Nagina; Mouni Roy in a poster of Naagin 2.

Naagins are no laughing matter. If you are turning up your nose at the news of Ekta Kapoor renewing the third season of her super successful TV Show Naagin on Colors, hit pause and wonder what drives her.

If you track the BARC reports from 2015 to 2017, when Naagin 1 and 2 ran on Colors, you will discover that the series that made Mouni Roy a huge household name almost always grabbed the top position and never slipped from the Top 5. That completely explains the logic behind a Naagin 3, doesn’t it?

It’s a very interesting trope. The <i>Naagin</i> series follows a familiar set-up that’s quintessentially Ekta Kapoor - drama in the house, <i>saas bahu jhagde</i> and so on - but with a whole new spin to it. I think the series’ success lies behind enticing the audience with the familiar but impressing them with something new. It’s akin to hitting the refresh button in the TV setup.

Gautam Chintamani, Film Historian and Author

Karishma Tanna in a poster of Naagin 3.(Photo courtesy: Twitter)

But what is it that drives the immense popularity of the icchadhaari naagin in theatre, films and TV through the years?

“The <i>naagin</i> story is an obverse of <i>Sleeping Beauty, </i>a “slithering beauty” if you will! The woman here is an interesting combination, a protector and a homemaker with crazy costumes and contact lenses that highlights a <i>desi</i> glamour that the audience connects to. Think femme fatale meets homemaker. The men are quite subservient in these films even as they play the archetypal <i>pati parameshwar.</i>”

Khalid Mohamed, Filmmaker-Critic

Culturally, Indians have always revered snakes - the respect mingling with deep-seated fear for obvious reasons. India is home to around 270 species of snakes including the “big four” - the most venomous ones - the Indian cobra, common krait, Russell's viper, and the saw-scaled viper. A considerable number of the populace loses its lives every year to them - though stats confirm it’s more out of fear of snakes than from actual poison. So it is only natural that snakes too would find a place in the vast firmament of Hindu gods. Devi Mansa, the snake goddess, is widely worshiped for instance in West Bengal and parts of Northeast India on Naag Panchami.

And since Indian gods like to mingle with mortals, the snake god and goddess have since time immemorial found representation in literature and folk theatre, and now movies and TV serials. The shape-shifting icchadhaari naag and naagin - note that we have never had a film like Anaconda here (you don’t treat divinity like monsters, duh) - largely guarantee box office superhits and runaway TRPs.

There have been a good number of snake films in Bollywood alone - regional movies would jack up the number further - and most have enjoyed a lot of success at the box office.

Mythological films have always had a great pull on Indian audiences. Otherwise how do you explain the success of <i>Jai Santoshi Ma</i> alongside <i>Aandhi </i>and <i>Sholay </i>in 1975? The audience is also looking for something different.&nbsp;

Gautam Chintamani

Chintamani offers a historical perspective to explain their box office triumph: “From 1949 to the 50s, there was a great thrust in films that told stories about a fast transforming India post Independence. While Dev and Vijay Anand and Raj Khosla made these slick and smartly packaged films, Raj kapoor and Mehboob Khan were trying to bridge the past and present India in their cinema. In between the two, a story that was a throwback to older times like Mother India, Madhumati, or Nagin, was a welcome change, a nice deviation which the audience loved. We are experiencing something similar now - a throwback to the Bollywood 80s post Tashan and Dabangg.”

It’s the films which presented the familiar story in a new package that have worked at the box office. If the 1954 <i>Nagin</i> had songs we hum even today, the 1976 one was a huge multi-starrer of its kind. <i>Nagina</i>, starring Sridevi, is of course the best remembered.&nbsp;

Gautam Chintamani

Check out some of the snake films to have swayed the Hindi film box office through the years:

Naag Panchami (1953)

In what was perhaps Bollywood’s first foray into snake films, Naag Panchami, as expected, revolved around the well-known mythology of the snake goddess Mansa, and her battle of egos and might with Behula, a devout wife determined to bring back to life her husband, who dies of snakebite. The film is a gorgeous fantasy costume drama with none other than Nirupa Roy - yes, the same lady who played Amitabh Bachchan’s mother years later in Deewar - starring as Behula.

Nagin (1954)

A DVD cover of Nagin.

Interestingly, Nagin had no shape-shifting snake at its helm. The story is a straightforward fantasy-drama, a love story of two young people from rival tribes who are saperan or snake-catchers by profession. The leading lady (Vyjayanthimala) is compared to a beautiful snake in the film, and is attracted to the hero’s (Pradip Kumar) been as are the reptiles, but she doesn’t turn into a snake (it doesn’t stop her from dying, singing a song in afterlife and then come back to life though). And Hemant Kumar’s music, especially the evergreen Mann Dole Mera Tan Dole, helped cement its box office success.

According to film lore, shares Khalid Mohamed, the been music often attracted snakes to the cinema halls where the film played.

Milap (1972)

A poster of Milap.

Dig this: 1972 saw the release of films like Amar Prem, Bawarchi, Raja Jani, Jawani Diwani, Pakeezah, and Seeta Aur Geeta, along with others headlined by megastars like Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra and Jeetendra.

What set Milap apart from the slew of rom coms and action films that year is the deadly combo of shape-shifting snakes, reincarnation and unrequited love.

It also released with leading actors who had barely made their mark in the business. Shatrughan Sinha had only given his first impressive performance in Gulzar’s Mere Apne a year earlier, while Reena Roy and Danny debuted with Zaroorat in 1972 itself.

Naag Panchami (1972)

Another reprisal of the mythology - this time in technicolor. Naag Panchami, starring Prithvi Raj Kapoor, Jayashree Gadkar and Shashikala (as the fabulously melodramatic Mansa), rustled up all the fun one could expect a costume drama in colour to deliver, combined as it was with some cool animation and what would now seem super-tacky GFX. The songs of course helped bring the audience to the theatres.

Shashikala as Mahadevi Mansa in the film. (Photo courtesy: YouTube Screenshot)

Nagin (1976)

A still from Nagin.

This is pure gold and my favourite in this list. It’s the bible of icchadhari naagins, and probably the first Hindi film to establish the template of the lovelorn revenge-seeking snake-woman - here played with absurd venom by Reena Roy (some bits actually show her in the conventional garb of the widow’s white even as she switches to psychedelic costumes and hairdo in the very next scene).

Boasting a formidable star cast of Sunil Dutt, Vinod Mehra, Feroz Khan, Sanjay Khan, Kabir Bedi, Jeetendra, Mumtaz, Rekha, Anil Dhawan and Yogita Bali, Nagin boasts a plot and acting so bad that it’s really good. This could not but be a super hit.

The 1976 <i>Nagin</i> was a huge multi-starrer. The star cast itself, along with the <i>nagin</i> revenge drama, was enough to draw the audiences to the theatre. It had some really good songs, especially ‘Tere Sang Pyar...’ was a huge hit. It was a very well packaged film.

Gautam Chintamani

Nagina (1986)

<i>“Nagina</i> catapulted Sridevi to an altogether different league of stardom. The film takes the familiar trope of a family drama but changes how it’s presented.”

Gautam&nbsp; Chintamani

Bringing together the shape-shifting naagin, the love-revenge trail and black magic in the form of the evil tantric Bhairo Nath - played by Amrish Puri as only he can - Nagina was the second highest grosser of 1986. And of course, Sridevi and Rishi Kapoor gave one of the best performances of their careers in the film.

“It’s Sridevi and Rishi Kapoor’s performances that made <i>Nagina</i> such a cult hit, along with the song ‘Main Teri Dushman...’ of course. In retrospect, the rest of the film looks positively creaky.”

Khalid Mohamed

The sequel, Nigahen: Nagina Part II, which released in 1989 with Sridevi, Sunny Deol and Anupam Kher, failed miserably at the box office however.

As did most of the other similarly themed films that followed, till the genre petered out altogether. Think Nache Nagin Gali Gali (1989), Sheshnaag (1990), Tum Mere Ho (1990), Jaani Dushman (2002), and even the Hollywood version Hisss (2010), starring Mallika Sherawat in the lead role. None of these films clicked with the audience, though the theme continues to rule TV.

“It would be fun to see a big ticket Bollywood star do a Nagina. Who might play the lead though... may be Priyanka Chopra! I think she will make a fabulous naagin,” Mohamed signs off.