Seeta Aur Geeta

<p>The story is about girls, Seeta and Geeta ( in a ), who were both separated at birth. Seeta, the long-suffering , is treated worse than a servant by her abusive, money-grubbing aunt, Kaushalya ( ), her spoilt daughter, Sheela ( ), and her equally cruel brother, Ranjeet ( ), despite the fact that the family is living off Seeta’s late parents’ money. Seeta’s only consolations are her meek uncle, Badrinath ( ), and her elderly, -bound grandmother ( ). Meanwhile, Geeta grows up to be a feisty girl raised in a and works as a along with Raka ( ), her friend and neighbour. One day, Seeta decides that life is not worthy and runs away from home to commit suicide. She is rescued but misunderstood to be Geeta and taken to Geeta’s home by Raka. Meanwhile, Badrinath and Kaushalya are frantically searching for Seeta and find Geeta. The two misunderstand her to be Seeta and attempt to force her to come with them, but using some of her clever tricks, Geeta escapes from them and the police who have been searching for her. She then meets Ravi ( ), Seeta’s prospective groom, who believes her to be Seeta as well and takes her to his home. Ravi is surprised by this “Seeta” and the Seeta he had met previously and falls in love with Geeta. Meanwhile, the real Seeta is living at Geeta’s home, where Geeta’s foster mother and Raka are surprised by the sudden gentle nature of “Geeta” and her desire to do the housework. When Raka attempts to coax Seeta into performing, she is unable to do so, however, Raka falls in love with Seeta. Elsewhere, the real Geeta is living at Seeta’s home where she realises the cruelty that Seeta has been living under. She vows to teach Kaushalya and Ranjeet a lesson and begins to set everything on a proper course. In the process, Geeta resumes control of the money and restores her grandmother to the head of the household where she belongs. However, things take a drastic turn when Ranjeet sees the real Seeta in a marketplace and discovers the truth. As a result, Geeta’s cover is blown and the police arrest her for impersonation, while Kaushalya and Ranjeet locate Seeta and bring her back to her life of mute slavery, abuse and confinement. Raka secretly releases Geeta from prison and reveals that she is Seeta’s long-lost twin sister after learning about Geeta’s true identity from her foster mother. This leads to Seeta, Geeta, Raka and Ravi fighting against Ranjeet and his henchmen and have the police arrest them all for their crimes. In the end, in the presence of Seeta and Geeta’s grandmother, Badrinath and the reformed Kaushalya and Sheela, the real Seeta marries Raka while the real Geeta marries Ravi. House Servant According to , one half of screenwriting duo , the concept of was inspired by the starrer (1967), but they altered the formula with twin female sisters. subverted the formula by having the heroine Hema Malini eventually become the “hero” while male lead Dharmendra is in a mostly supporting role. Ramesh Sippy initially wanted Nutan as Seeta and Geeta because he “saw the heroine as a mature woman with a child” but he was advised against casting a heroine who was “at a mature phase of her career when the hero, too, was getting along in age.” The film was also offered to popular actress , who ironically starred in , but she refused the offer as she wasn’t paid enough. Mumtaz stated in an interview that at the time, the film was offered to her, she was charging Rs 8-8.5 lakhs/film, but she was offered only Rs 2 lakhs for . So she had to refuse the film. According to Sippy, the film’s budget cost ( ). All the songs were composed by and lyrics were penned by . Vocals were supplied by & for Hema Malini, with for Dharmendra, and for Sanjeev Kumar. Domestically in India, the film grossed ( ) in 1972. Adjusted for inflation, this is equivalent to in 2017. in , the film grossed 13.8 million (US$18.21 million, 16.03 crore) in 1976. Adjusted for inflation, this is equivalent to ( ) in 2017. , the film grossed 19.53 crore (US$22.82 million). Adjusted for inflation, this is equivalent to in 2017, or (US$170 million) in 2023. In terms of footfalls, the film sold an estimated tickets in India and 55.2 million tickets in the Soviet Union, for an estimated total of 88.2 million tickets sold worldwide. Bohra Bros had made a television series based on this film which was aired on in 2009. Coincidentally Hema Malini did a similar series on same plot called which was aired on Sahara One on 2004.</p>