‘Madan Chopra naam hai mera, Madan Chopra.’
Before Shah Rukh teased fans, “Rahul, naam to suna hoga”, Dalip Tahil — aka Madan Chopra — gave him a tough time in Abbas-Mustan’s 1993 film Baazigar.
Later, Dalip Tahil played many negative roles, but nothing matched his aura and villainy in Baazigar.
So much so that the actor delivered a talk at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management campus in Mumbai three years ago. Can you guess the topic?
It was called “How to Take Over a Business Madan Chopra Style.”
Nonetheless, Dalip Tahil’s business acumen didn’t work for Amazon Prime’s reality show The Traitors Season 2.
Among 21 contestants, he faced elimination in the very first episode.
He was not alone: Karan Singh Magic, Munawar Faruqui and Harman Singha were also eliminated in the first three episodes. Sadly, this time the Madan Chopra story didn’t take off. The Traitors 2 marks Dalip Tahil’s OTT debut.
How he got eliminated
Veteran actor Dalip Tahil, who made his reality-TV debut with the show, became the first eviction on day one. In the opening task, contestants were asked to secretly distribute gold coins among themselves. During the task, Dalip’s attempt to stand out led to him receiving the lowest share of gold coins, and he was eliminated.
He was introduced hanging mid-air with two co-contestants, rapper Ikka and content creator Prish. While the other two were confirmed on the show, Dalip Tahil lost the game before he even started it.
When Dalip Tahil gave a talk at IIM Mumbai
In November 2023, Dalip Tahil posted a video of himself from the Indian Institute of Management campus in Mumbai. The actor had gone there to deliver a talk to students. What caught the internet’s attention was how he incorporated his iconic character Madan Chopra into his talk.
In fact, the banner behind him showed his face from the 1993 hit Baazigar and referred to his character with the title: “How to Take Over a Business Madan Chopra Style.” Tahil captioned his video, “Teaching the next generation how to do it right.”
The video went viral almost instantly.
A fan wrote, “Legend.” Another wrote, “Madan Chopra supremacy.” Another comment read, “Legend for a reason.”
Needless to say, Dalip Tahil, who often shares self-deprecating jokes about his villainy era on Instagram reels, not only made himself approachable to the next generation but also showed top-notch Instagram game.
Madan Chopra vs Ajay Sharma
The premise was simple for a 1990s film. A friend duped another of his business and carried out a “hostile” takeover. The duped friend’s son returned to take revenge by hook or by crook.
But what made this film a cult classic was the face-off between Dalip Tahil and Shah Rukh Khan.
A young Shah Rukh — aka Vicky — duped Madan Chopra as his daughter (played by Kajol) fell in love with him.
“Udne ki baat parindey karte hai Madan Chopra, tute hue par nahi.. Chillaao mat.. yaad karo vo race ka maidaan.. tumne toh mujhe apna chela nahi maana tha.. lekin maine tumhe apna guru maankar apni jeeti hui baazi tumhaare naam kardi.. kyuki vo race ki trophy meri manzil nahi thi.. meri manzil thi yeh kursi,” Ajay Sharma (Vicky) confronted Madan Chopra in the final scene.
“You’re a bad person. Why have you hit Shah Rukh Khan so badly?”
The Madan Chopra era is over, but it became synonymous with Dalip Tahil and it never left him.
Dalip Tahil, on an episode of the podcast Untriggered With Aminjaz, said, “It’s sort of strange because it is a compliment that they actually don’t like you because the audience associates you with the character. I did it so well that so and so hates my guts. And it happened to me.”
The Made in Heaven star talked about his encounter with a female fan of SRK at London’s Heathrow Airport. While detailing the incident, he confessed that at the time he felt really “terrible.”
Dalip Tahil added, “At Heathrow Airport in London, I was just about to go to the boarding place. And this girl came to me and she said, ‘Why did you beat Shah Rukh Khan so much? Why did you?’ She was clearly and totally besotted with Shah Rukh.
And the way she said it to me, I began to feel really terrible.”
Dalip Tahil also spoke about how a role can have a deep impact on people’s minds. “So I said, ‘Well, he hit me as well.’ She said, ‘That doesn’t matter. You’re the bad guy. He’s going to hit you. But why did you do this to him?’ I mean, it has a deep impact on people’s minds, particularly people who are vulnerable,” he said.
Well, Madan Chopra didn’t win in Baazigar. But we didn’t see it coming that the actor would be eliminated so early on The Traitors Season 2.
Whether he was a traitor or innocent, perhaps only Shah Rukh Khan knew.
