Premnath apne aap ko Swami kehte the, jinda murgo ko gala daba ke marte the aur 100 aur 125 ke sadhuo ko khana khilate the... BY ALI EPTER JOHN

Ever since the strong south wave has been sweeping Bollywood under it and even trampling on them, there is a lot of anxiety and even fear in Bollywood - Ali Peter John

Only yesterday, a leading star who I met in a five star hotel and who was looking very glum and gloomy because his recent big film have failed very miserably at the box office, was telling me that some of the stars and filmmakers are having sleepless nights and I even having nightmares because of the onslaught of the south and it's big blockbuster films.

He asked me if there was any way of getting out of this season of despair and I told him that the only way to find hope and success is to have confidence and faith in themselves and make or even try to make better films than the ones made in the south.

Wasn't Bollywood proud of it's success and the kind of films it made some time ago? Why then did Bollywood have to suffer such humiliation at the hands of the same filmmakers from the south who they once ridiculed and even humiliated ? I asked him these two questions and he quietly got into his huge white SUV and vanished from my sight.

This was not the only time when stars and superstars panicked when they were faced with threats of failure.

There were times in the 60s and 70s when stars looked for other ways of finding success even when they knew that it was the hard work, commitment, dedication and determination that could help in turning into a magic wand to make successful films. Some of them even went crazy and believed in the most supernatural things that were not even talked about in religious books.

One of the first stars who broke all ways of finding success after he had failed as a hero was Premnath, the handsome hero who had suddenly gone into the wilderness and had written several books in the forest and found a baba who gave him the key to success.

And Premnath came back to Bombay a completely changed man. He had grown bald and had started preaching all kinds of philosophy to people.

He wore saffron robes and had any number of malas around his neck and always kept his chest open.

He had not worked in films for several years and when he returned he did with Vijay Anand "Jonny Mera Naam" and did some of the most blatantly sexy scene with a dancer called Padma Khanna.

And the grand success of the film made him believe that his success was possible because of all those malas around his neck.

He made the malas and the saffron silk lungi his everyday dress and did the most ignoble things like going out into the winter with only his lungi and with any number of sadhus who he said he had invited from the Himalayas and the youngest of them was only 125 years old.

He carried a whole poultry of cocks with him and strangled them and threw them in the roads as a sacrifice as he drove towards panchgani.

He had an ADC in uniform standing with him all the time and used him for all his personal needs and had shocked celebrities from both Hollywood and Bombay when he called his ADC and asked him to bring his pot which was made of silver and openly urinated in front of the entire crowd, this happened at the launching of Krishna Shah's Shalimar which besides be Dharmendra, Jeenat Aman and Premnath had noted Hollywood stars, like Rex Harrison, Sylvia miles and others.

Inspite of all that he did to please his God, to give him and film success, Salimar went down as one of the greatest disasters of Hindi films.

Premnath did find work in some films, but his Tantric attempts and tricks failed to come to his rescue and his films continued to flop and filmmakers who had not worked with him were scared of casting him because of all his mad doings which he believed was his best way of pleasing God and pleading with him to give him and the film he worked in success, but God seemed to have turned a def ear to all his mumbo jumbo and his downfall became more obvious.

He had fallen seriously sick, but he told his friends and doctors that his "prayers" would save him even from death.

But his own belief in his own medicines failed and he one day died and except for his family which included his actoress/wife no knew about. He was a very shattered man during the last days of his life.

Why did his prayers, sacrifices and offerings to his Gods not come to his help when he needed help the most ? This question will never ever find answers because there will also never be another mad, saintly, philosophic, poetic and "divine" man like Premnath.