Amitabh Bachchan Was Not The Only Talent, K.A Abbas Discovered

Ali Peter John

There is a general feeling that K.A Abbas discovered Amitabh Bachchan. Yes, he saw the talent in Amitabh within minutes and offered him the role of the ‘seventh Indian' in “Saat Hindustani" for only five thousand rupees for the whole film and a dormitory in Goa to be shared with the entire unit. But as I look back, I think of the various talents he had given their opportunities to shine and take off. He had that amazing talent to know what talent was and how to get the best out of the talent that was automatically attracted to him. It was a talent that was inbuilt in him and I don't think his belief in the talent he discovered ever went wrong, except once and that case was a gone case from the very word go and is now doing some strange entertainment shows based on Hindi films in some of the most remote corners of some almost unknown countries and making quite a good living, running a school for dance and general entertainment and investing in some small cafes.....

It was way back in 1946 that Abbas Sahab discovered talent like Balraj Sahni in his first film, “Dharti Ke Lal" which was the story about the famine in Bengal. Balraj Sahni who was trained at Rabindranath Tagore's ‘Shantiniketan' and Mahatma Gandhi's ‘Sewagram' and was one of the leading radio personalities on BBC lived up the role of a destitute victim of the famine and always considered his role in the film as one of his best. In many ways, it was a brilliant beginning for a brilliant actor who was to build on the foundation of his role in “Dharti Ke Lal" and rise to be one the greats of Indian cinema.

Abbas kept making films his way, with his own convictions and his own ways of keeping away from the general trends and traditions followed by other filmmakers, but he had the power to attract even some of the big stars who were on the periphery of greatness. He found talent in the young Dev Anand who was Chetan Anand's (Abbas had written the script of Anand's “Neecha Nagar" which went on to win international awards) younger brother who had just come to Bombay from Gurdaspur in Punjab before the partition. Dev Anand had no place to live in Bombay and it was Abbas who helped him by giving him a place to live in at his Shivaji Park one room apartment. He knew about Dev's ambition to make it as an actor and cast him in his film, “Rahi", a story about tea-planters. It was to mark the beginning of one of the most glorious chapters in Hindi cinema. The prediction of abbas had left Dev Anand and to grow into a legend.

Abbas had the ability to know what heights tried talent could rise to and that is why he could work with established stars like Raj Kapoor (he had written the scripts for Raj Kapoor's “Aawaara",“Shri 420"and other big films to come in the years to come), Nargis, Meena Kumari and Nimmi and character artists like David Abraham and Nana Palshikar.

It was in 1964 that he made “Sheher aur Sapna" with two rank newcomers, Dilip Raj who was the son of his actor-friend, P. Jayaraj who was a leading man in the silent and an unknown middle class Maharastrian girl called Surekha. The film had to face any number of controversies because of the realities of a city like Bombay. As the time came when the then home minister, Morarji Desai decided to ban  the film and Abbas challenged him to walk with him around the city to see the realities of life. Desai had a strong objection to Abbas showing Dilip Raj and Surekha living in one of the many empty pipes kept ready to build new roads for the city. Desai was however adamant and Abbas had to go to Court and win his case . The film went on to win the National Award for the best film which was presented to Abbas, Dilip Raj and Surekha from the then President of India, Dr S. Radhakrishnan. Abbas repeated the same team in one of his ambitious films, “Aasman Maahal" which had Prithviraj Kapoor heading the cast and playing a rich Muslim character.

Besides Raj Kapoor and Nargis (who he had even cast in a double role in “Anhoone". He had also cast Shammi Kapoor in “Chaar Dil Chaar Raahein" and he had also cast actresses like Kamini Kaushal and Nadira in major characters.

He however had the best opportunities to cast new talent in the late sixties and seventies when he made films like “Bambai Raat Ki Baahon Mein" with names like Vimal Ahuja and he was the first filmmaker to cast a beauty queen called Persis Khambatta,a Parsi girl from a rich family and Jalal Agha who was the son of the comedian Agha who had started his career as the hero of “Jwar Bhaata" in which Dilip Kumar made his debut. This film, too had problems with the government and the censors, but Abbas never gave his fight till the film saw the light of day.

It was a casting coup of sorts when Abbas launched “Do Boond Paani" which was about the drought in Rajasthan. He launched two careers in the film, Simmi Garewal and Kiran Kumar who was the son of the well-known villain, Jeevan and had passed out of the FTII. What these two actors turned out to be in the time to come is now a part of history. Whenever there is a reference to their careers, their stories will be incomplete without mentioning “Do Boond Paani" and the characters created for them by Abbas and the way he groomed them in their very first film.

He had groomed the careers of many other actors, but if there is one actress who owes her career to him, it is Shabana Azmi who was the daughter of his best friend and comarade-poet Kaifi Azmi and Shaukat Kaifi who was a leading theatre personality associated with IPTA.

Shabana was a twelve year old girl when she first approached her ‘Chachajaan', Abbas to cast her in a lead role in one of his films. Abbas laughed and told her that she was too young to be a leading lady and that he would keep her in mind and cast her at the right time. The right time came, Shabana had passed out of the FTII as one of the outstanding actresses and Abbas kept his promise to his niece and cast her as the leading lady of his film, “Faasla" which was roughly based on the story of “Aawara" and Shabana had to play the role Nargis played in the original and news about her good work in a film directed by Abbas spread and among the first ‘outsider' to sign her was Shyam Benegal who was making “Ankur", his first film. Abbas took his own time to complete  “Faasla", but Benegal completed and released “Ankur" which created a stir all over the country and both Shyam and Shabana received all the acclaim and appreciation.

For years after death, Shabana kept telling one and all that “Ankur" was her first film, till I who had worked as an assistant during the making of  “Faasla" and carried the saris of Shabana from one location to another and even played a one minute role with dialogue in the film, with Shabana, confronted her one afternoon and asked her why she was avoiding giving credit to Abbas for giving her the first break. I don't know whether it is what I told Shabana, but ever since that afternoon I have seen Shabana always mentioning  “Faasla" as her debut making film and I feel a high when she does it, because I know Abbas was never given the credit he deserved, except for Raj Kapoor who called him his conscience and who could be thrown out of his (Abbas) office anytime he came drunk or was in no position to talk sense. The last film Abbas made was “Ek Aadmi" which was an autobiographical film and he had cast the newly recognised actor, Anupam Kher to play him, but the film couldn't be released in a proper way as Abbas had two heart attacks even while he was supervising the dubbing of the film and finally died of a massive heart attack.

P.S- And if there was one talent he is fully responsible for, it is Tinnu Anand, who was his assistant and also a good actor who had done a very good role in “A Tale of Four Cities" and was cast as the seventh Indian in “Saat Hindustani" from which he backed out at the last minute to join Satyjit Ray as his thirteenth assistant and Abbas had not let him go unless he found a replacement for his role. That replacement was lying in Tinnu's purse that was a photograph of an unknown actor that photograph was of Amitabh Bachchan who Abbas signed only after he made sure that he was the son of his friend, Dr Harivanshrai Bachchan and the young actor had given up his job as a junior executive in Calcutta to join the cast of “Saat Hindustani" and the rest is history. But what I like about Amitabh is that he never loses any opportunity to show his gratitude to that amazing and extraordinary man called Khwaja Ahmad Abbas,a man comes once in a millenium.

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