Top 10 Bollywood Movies That Ran For The Longest Time In Cinema Halls

3 MUGHAL-E-AZAM ( 3 YEARS)

The acclaimed costume drama ‘Mughal-E-Azam’ brought to the celluloid the tragic romance between prince Salim and courtesan Anarkali. Starring two of the most good-looking stars of that generation – Dilip Kumar and Madhubala – the film is known for its opulent sets, extraordinary performances and outstanding music. It is one of the costliest films ever made in India. The budget for a single song sequence is said to be more than the total budget of a film of the period.

When ‘Mughal-E-Azam’ hit theaters in 1960, it witnessed the widest release for any Hindi film up to that time and, breaking all previous box-office records, turned out to be the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time. It managed to hold this feat for 15 years. It ran for 3 years in cinema halls and took all the prominent awards home. It won one National Film Award and three Filmfare Awards at the 8th Filmfare Awards. Made on a budget of Rs. 1.5 crores, the film garnered around Rs. 5.5 crores.

If we talk about the music of the film, it was composed by veteran musician Naushad with lyrics provided by Shakeel Badayuni. The soundtrack of the film is as grand as the entire film. Reportedly, 20 songs were composed for the film, out of which only 12 songs could be used owing to the exceeding length of the movie.

Seeing the immense popularity of the epic film among the audience, some technicians decided to colour it digitally and re-release the film. The colour version, which hit screens in November 2004, was a commercial success like the original black-and-white version.

TRIVIA: Ustad Zakir Hussain was considered for the role of the young Dilip Kumar, which was eventually played by Jalal Agha.