“Only If You Are Successful Will You Be Saleable”- Navin Nischol

IN MEMORY

To commemorate his 73rd birth anniversary on April 11, we reproduce this interview with NAVIN NISCHOL by JYOTHI VENKATESH which appeared 39 years ago. 

With tears in my eyes, I remember my dear friend Navin Nischol who reigned the film industry as a super star long before Amitabh Bachahn had strode in like a giant Colossus. With his very first film Sawan Bhadon, Navin Nischol found himself sought after by producers who mattered in the industry. And before he realized what he was doing, he had been signed for as many as 20 films, mostly with Rekha as his heroine since it was with Rekha as his leading lady that he was launched with Sawan Bhadon. Incidentally, it was Rekha’s debut too.

We met for this interview at the Otters Club where he prefers to spend most of his evenings these days. Navin is off drinks. While I preferred to guzzle beer, Navin opted for Thums Up. What is refreshing about Navin is that he does not brood over his old days when he had ruled the rostrum before one had even heard of a ‘guy’ called Amitabh Bachchan.

Today, Navin realizes  and admits  that the biggest mistake of his career was to have turned down Manoj Kumar’s offer  to cast him with Amitabh Bachchan in his Roti Kapada Aur Makaan and Yash Chopra’s offer to cast him as Amitabh Bachchan’s brother in Deewar. The roles were promptly grabbed by Shashi Kapoor who was languishing for want of films at that time.

After the release of Roti Kapada Aur Makaan and Deewar, while Shashi Kapoor went on to become the  busiest star of the decade with as many as 60 films on his hands, Navin realized that he was  being slowly eased out of  filmdom and there was no buyer for him since the era of multi starrers had set in.

“Though today, I regret having turned down offers from Manoj Kumar and Yash Chopra, at that time I felt that I was perfectly justified because I wanted to be like Jeetendra who sells all alone even today. Those were the days when films with more than one hero were unheard of. Deewar and Roti Kapada Aur Makaan were perhaps the first two films to be launched with two or three stars in the industry. Sholay had yet to be launched. I am talking of the early 70’s when in films like Parwana, I played the romantic lead while Amitabh Bachchan was cast as the villain. Anand was the only film he had to his credit though I had several films on the floors”.

“Nothing is as fickle as the film industry”, Navin quipped. “After having canned seven reels of Duniya Ka Mela with Amitabh Bachchan as the leading man, its producer came to me and  pleaded with me  to step in the role  which was being played hitherto by Amitabh Bachchan since no distributor was prepared to buy his film if Amitabh was to play the leading man. I showed him the exit because I rightly felt that it was unethical for me to agree to do the role at the cost of a struggling co-actor. Later Sanjay Khan played the role. Today Sanjay Khan is nowhere on the scene while Amitabh is the No 1”

Navin feels that he had backed the wrong horses when he was at the peak of his career.  “I had banked on Zorro, Who Main Nahin and Monto. I had pinned great hopes on them. Had those films clicked, I’d certainly have been on an altogether different track today. Whatever may be the reason for my oblivion, I am glad that no one has found fault with me as an actor. I believe that a performance cannot be good or bad. It can only be true or false. If you performance I true, it can shoot you up to the top echelons of stardom and if it is false, it can easily pull you down.”

Today, Navin has quite a few films on hand. He has been pitted along with Amitabh Bachchan,Hema Malini, Parveen Babi and Sharmila Tagore in Manmohan Desai’s Desh Premee. He doesn’t regret having stepped into the role which was vacated by Shatrughan Sinha. “If I had not accepted the role when Manmohan Desai had offered it to me, someone else waiting in the wings may have bagged it and I would have lost an opportunity to work with one of our brilliant filmmakers.”

Today, Navin is also the producer of a film called Jaan Se Pyaara starring, besides himself in the romantic lead, Rekha and Reena Roy as his two leading ladies. His brother Pravin Nischol will be directing the film. “Most of the people in the industry have the misconception that  I have turned a producer only because I do not get any assignment at all and that I am grabbing each and every offer that I get even if it is only opposite new starlets like Kajal Kiron or Prema Narayan. To tell you the truth, even today, if I want, I can sign as many as 40 films with the best of the producers. But I do not want to exert myself and do three or four shifts every day.”

Navin had passed out of the Pune Film Institute, with a gold medal in acting. “It was Mohan Sehgal who advised me to apply for admission to the acting course and promised me a break as soon as I passed out of the Institute. I used to work as an assistant to him on the sets of Kanyaadaan and Saajan to get the feel of the atmosphere in the industry before he gave me a break as the leading man in Sawan Bhadon”.

“People ask me why I didn’t take up direction of my film. Though I am keen on direction, I just do not want to take up direction right now because bitchy cynics are bound to snigger that I do not have any film on hand and hence taking up direction. Besides, my brother Praveen is a good technician and deserves a decent break and what better break than a home production for him?”

Navin feels that there is a vast difference between a director and a producer. “A producer makes a film with only eyes at the box office receipts whereas a director will try to do justice to his film as a creator. To make a good film, a director has got to collaborate with the producer since if ideologies differ, he cannot make a good film.”

To validate his point, Navin reels off the examples of a few films, strictly off the record and concludes that if a producer-director directs a film for an outside producer, in 19 out of 20 cases, the project doesn’t click. “How long can the poor director go on adjusting according to the convenience of the producer?”

Dahshat, his latest release, has not let him down. Navin was in Ramsay Brother’s earlier venture Saboot too. “I am not there in each and every film being made by the Ramsays.  I have not been signed for their Ghungroo Ki Awaaz. On the anvil for an early release are my films like Dil Hi Dil Mein, Shiv Charan, Log Kya Kahenge, Hotel, Maut and Desh Premee

Navin is happy that the going right now is good as far as his career is concerned. “The moderate success of my films like Saboot last year and Dahshat this year have boosted my sagging morale and prodded me to keep my best foot forward in my future projects. Years of perseverance in this industry have taught me that it is not talent alone but luck which can propel you to success. Till Dame Fortune smiles on you, no matter how talented you may be, you will be dubbed unsaleable. What matters in this industry is saleability. You are successful as long as you are saleable.”

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