Manoj Kumar Could Have Turned Rajesh Khanna Into A Villain...

Ali Peter John

Rajesh Khanna had won the Filmfare and the Film Producers Talent Contest and according to the rules, every producer was supposed to give him a break as a hero, but Manoj Kumar was already a big name after had inspired a film like Shaheed and was making a film called Upkar after being inspired by the then Prime Minister, Mr. Lal Bahadur Shastri.

He had cast himself as Bharat, Asha Parekh as the heroine and had surprised the industry and all film lovers by casting the big time villain, Pran as Malang Baba, the good man who even had a philosophical song to sing in the voice of Manna Dey.

But he wanted a new young villain and Rajesh Khanna was desperately looking for a break. He approached Manoj Kumar for the role of the villain. Manoj gave him a test and finalised him as the villain who would play his younger brother gone wrong and gone the wild ways of the west and hungry about property and money. Rajesh Khanna was willing to play the role and was even very happy.

Things however changed for Rajesh and one of the big producers wanted to sign him as the hero of his film, but the condition was that he would first have to get out of Manoj Kumar's film in which he was playing the negative role. Rajesh Khanna did not sleep all night and reached Manoj Kumar's house the next morning and told Manoj Kumar about his problem and Manoj was very calm. He asked him to sign the film as the hero he was getting an opportunity to do and told him that he would find someone to play the villain in his film.

Prem Chopra, a one-time assistant circulation manager with the Times of India Group had worked with Manoj in Shaheed and Manoj had liked his work. He sent for him and signed him as the villain and that was the beginning of one of the longest innings of a villain in Hindi films who by some coincidence did the maximum films with Manoj Kumar and played the maximum roles of the villain with Rajesh Khanna.

What if Manoj Kumar had not allowed Rajesh Khanna to be relieved from his role as a villain in "Upkar"?

NASEER WAS A BIG ZERO IN ...

Naseeruddin Shah was very sure that he would be a nobody in life as he was increasingly showing no interest in studies and was only interested in seeing the films of Dev Anand and Dara Singh repeatedly. And his biggest drawback as a studeny was that he was a big zero in mathematics and failed in Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry however hard he tried. He could only remember the formulae and never knew how to apply. He some how passed school and gradually got interested in theatre and then took to doing theatre actively and was found to be very natural and good. He joined the FTII and very soon he was recognized as a master actor in both theatre and cinema, but his first love has always been theatre in Hindi, Urdu and English .

During the last 40 year, Naseer has been some kind of a landmark in theatre doing every kind of play, working on plays of some  of the greatest masters of all-time and play rights of all major languages. He together with his wife, Ratna Patak Shah, daughter and sons Imaad  and Vivaan have set new benchmarks and theatre in the last decades. Naseer has been in the center of all kinds of political and other controversies, but all that doesn't stop him from pursing his passion to theatre. Under the volatile circumstances actors like him have to face, he knows that the future can be difficult, but that and unusual kind og fear doesn't stop him from adventuring with his love for theatre. He is now trying to experiment with performing for corporate companies and other platforms from where he feels his place can send out stronger messages.

KAMAL AND DAUGHTER SHRUTI CREATE MAGIC IN CHENNAI

That evening when Kamal Hassan and his daughter Shruti took the stage to sing their version of the devotional song, Ragupati Ragava Raja Ram on a stage in Chennai was sheer magic and that is saying very little .

The show opens with Kamal sitting in his national dress with his arch rival and competitor, Rajinikanth sitting next to him which is stark grey beard and a benign smile on his face. Kamal abruptly gets up from his seat and walk up like a lion in slow motion as he sings Ragupathi Ragava Raja Ram and several band and choirs start playing a number of instruments under the complete command of the maestro illaiyaraja, while A. R Rahman, Rajinikanth and almost the entire Industry from Chennai join in the applause and in the solemn silences when demanded. Kamal is suddenly joined by his beautiful daughter Shruti and then it is a spiritual festival of music and poetry at its spiritual best with the father and daughter signing as if there was no tomorrow and with the audience hoping that there was no tomorrow as long as the father and writer sang as if they were in a trance or lost in some other world....

And as I watched the father and daughter weave their magic i thought of those days when Kamal and Sarika. The beautiful actress from Bombay were going through turbulent times. Kamal was still doing some of his last few Hindi films and Sarika was like a monad with no place to live in and moving from one PG to another. It was that this stage that  their paths crossed and led to love. Kamal had just did farewell to his first marriage to dancer and actress Vani Ganpathi. Kamal had got into a passionate relationship with Sarika and the result was that Sarika was pregnant. She was living in an apartment in a building called Gulistan in Seven Bungalows where she told me, a close friend about her pregnancy. She then moved to Chennai. And was the "Sarika Amma" of Chennai and had her second daughter, the first was named Shruti and the second was named Akshara. In a strange change of traditions, Kamal married Sarika at a public reception after they had their two children.

Kamal and Sarika two have now separated and Shruti and Akshara live with their father and Sarika is back to living the life of a monad and when last heard of, She was producing the play with which Era Khan, the daughter of Aamir Khan is making her debut as a director in theatre.

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