Raaj Grover's“Yaadein Zara Zara"Is By Far The Best Books On The Legends Of Bollywood

Ali Peter John

In the last two years, there has been a virtual flood of books based on the lives and work of film celebrities.

In the nineties there were books written by well-known writers like Nabendu Ghosh (the favourite writer of director Bimal Roy),Nasreen Munni Kabeer, Bunny Reuben and Raj Kapoor daughter Ritu Nanda and some others. There were books written on “Mr and Mrs Dutt"(Sunil Dutt and Nargis). There were books written on Mehboob Khan, Raj Kapoor, Ashok Kumar, Bimal Roy and random books on Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Rekha,Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Dev Anand, Kishore Kumar, Naushad and Khayyam. Unfortunately, most of these books were not the perfect books and some of them even had blatant flaws and were even based on gossip and hearsay and as they deserved, they were taken off bookshops as soon as objections were raised by the near and dear ones of the legends who had become a part of history.

There was a slump in the publishing of such books for quite some time. But since the last five years, there has been a sudden spurt of biographies written mostly by unknown writers who have based their books on interviews with people who were close to the subjects for on journalists who knew the stories behind the subjects they chose to write about. There were publishing houses like Harper Collins, Om Books, Penguin, Random Books and other smaller publishers who were ‘hungry'to publish books on stars, star directors and even music composers.

There were three books written on Dilip Kumar which Dilip Kumar dismissed as not authorised by him. The ultimate book on him was written by the former editor of ‘Screen'who was a family friend of Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu. She took twenty-three years to complete the book and most of the book was written at a time when Dilip Kumar had started losing his memory and the gaps in his story were filled by Mrs Udaya Tara Nayar, the editor. The book was released at a grand function where anyone who really mattered in the industry was present. But the book was a clumsy and hastily done job and recieved bad and very bad reviews which badly affected the sales  of the book.

The writer Bunny Reuben wrote the biography of the veteran villain, Pran and named it“And Pran". The actor found the book doing injustice to him and denied having anything to do with the book.

The daughter of the other big villain Prem Chopra also wrote the story of her father called“Prem naam hai mera"which was launched in the presence of all his colleagues headed by his friend and co-star of several films, Amitabh Bachchan.

The other stars who were subjects of biographies were Rajesh Khanna, who had three books written about him and another one is being written by a former film journalist since the last three years.

There was a biography written about Rajnikanth by a woman journalist and when the Thailava Rajnikanth read a few pages of the book, he was so angry that he cancelled the grand launch function organised which was to be attended by Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Sridevi and all the stars from Mumbai and all the four industries in the South.

Vyjayanthimala wrote her autobiography in which she had denied having any romantic affair with Raj Kapoor, but when Rishi Kapoor read that part of her book, he made a bold statement in which he said,“of course, she had an affair with my father for which our family had to suffer so much that we even decided to leave our bungalow and live in a hotel for long".His statement literally ruined the book. Around the same time there were books written about Rishi Kapoor, Asha Parekh, and music directors S.D Burman, R.D Burman, and Shanker-Jaikishan and Salil Chowdhury.

The late Dev Anand was approached by several publishers and writers and some of his best friends, but he refused to give any of them permission to write books about him and said,“how can anyone try to write a book about me when they will never be able to know the truth about Dev, however hard they may try. Only Dev can write about Dev".

And he finally wrote his autobiography within a month, writing more than a thousand pages in his own handwriting. The book was titled“Romancing Life". The publishers, Harper Collins were only too willing to publish it and the response was amazing. It was released in New Delhi by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who shared his birthday with Dev (September 26) and the PM invited Dev to his house to release the book. Amitabh Bachchan who was neck deep in work found time off to release the book at The Leela Hotel which was one of Dev's favourite hotels and its owner, Mr P.K Nair was a fan and friend of Dev. It was perhaps the only book about film celebrities to be a best seller and to be published i first as a hard cover edition and then as a paper back edition. There was more than half of what he had written that was left out by the publishers as they could not publish all that he had written in one book. They had promised Dev that would publish the left out portions as another book, but like most promises made to the large and warm-hearted Dev, this promise also remained incomplete. There was an authoritative book on Dev called“Dev Eternal Anand"written by his fan for years, Mr Trinetra Bajpai together with his daughter Anshula Bajpai, which Dev looked very much because of the details, most of which it even he had forgotten and the most unusual photographs. The last attempt to write a book about him was made by one of his one-time assistants, Vijay Kumar. The book was titled“Dev Saab"and I am sure if Dev Sahab had even seen the book, he would have screamed foul and thrown the so called writer out of his penthouse office. In recent times there have been biographies of Hema Malini and Asha Parekh which are genuine and Rekha and Sanjay Dutt who have denied having anything to do with the books about them....

The most interesting biography in recent times had been the one on Shatrughan Sinha titled “Khamosh"which has created quite a sensation in both film and political circles. The actor who is known for his speciality in talking his heart out on anyone or any issue (like he has been attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi even though he is still an important Member of Parliament belonging to the ruling party, BJP) has spoken like never before in the book which is sure to leave many khamosh(silent).

Anupama Chopra, a noted journalist and writer who is the wife of filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra and the force behind the Jio MAMI Festival wrote books on several classic films of the last twenty-five years like “Sholay"and“DDLJ", but she seems to have gone silent. Is it because she doesn't have any other classics to write about?

The trend however doesn't seem to end as there are many more books to come. A writer who had written a book on Rajesh Khanna is now working on a book on the most successful team of writers, Salim-Javed. Another writer (?) who had left his lucrative job to write a book on the poet-lyricist, Sahir Ludhianvi based only on several interviews is now working on a book on Nasir Hussain (the uncle of Aamir Khan) who had made films like “Yaadon Ki Baaraat"(in which Aamir made his debut as a child artist), “Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai"and who produced the cult film“Teesri Manzil"which was directed by Vijay Anand and which had Salim Khan (father of Salman Khan and the partner of Javed Akhtar of the Salim-Javed team as a junior character actor and which gave Shammi Kapoor and R.D Burman a new lease of life. The last film he had directed was a black and white film,“Baharon Ke Sapne"with Asha Parekh and a new actor called Rajesh Khanna who neither Husain nor the actor himself knew would be India's first superstar.

And if you ask me for whatever my opinion is worth, I think the best effort at writing a book on“the legends of Bollywood"is the book written by one of the first few friends I had made in the world of Hindi films whose name is Raaj Grover, whose takiya qalaam has always been“Raaj Grover, never over". Grover was one of the highly trusted lieutenants of Sunil Dutt and Nargis Dutt and knew almost everyone in the industry, big or small on a first name basis. Grover was a very successful PRO who had groomed the careers of young people who are stars, superstars and legends today. Grover then took to producing films and made“Taaqat"with Vinod Khanna, Raakhee and Pran and directed by the flamboyant director-son of Rajinder Singh Bedi, one of the best known writers in India, Narinder Bedi who had earlier made films like“Khote Sikkey",“The Train",“Adalat"with Amitabh Bachchan is in his first double role and Waheeda Rehman and many other films. Grover also produced“Thikaana", directed by Mahesh Bhatt and with Anil Kapoor, Amrita Singh and Smita Patil among others in key roles.

But the single most important achievement of Grover was his taking around a struggling actor called Amitabh Bachchan, on the request of Sunil Dutt and Nargis Dutt who were asked to help the young man who was the son of the great poet, Dr Harivanshrai Bachchan and Teji Bachchan who were close friends of the then Prime Minister of India, Mrs Indira Gandhi. He kept making the round with the young man and sometimes was even asked not to introduce the young man because most of the leading filmmakers saw absolutely no future for him. That young man is now the seventy-six year old star of the millennium and beyond....

Grover then shifted to New Jersey in America where he has been living with his wife, Shashi and their two daughters who had been living in America for several years after they got married...

Raaj Grover always had a flair for writing and telling stories (jokes being his speciality). It took Raaj Grover three years of hard work, dedication to his passion and sincerity to write his first book,“Yaadien Zara Zara"which is a compilation of his memories of the legends he has come in touch with in his more than fifty years of his life in the film industry. The book was originally written in Urdu and then translated into English by Suchitra Iyer, one of the best known writers in the English language in Mumbai. The book which has been published by Jaico Publishers has been recieved very well. And what is special about Grover's book is that every rupee that comes from the sales of the book will go to the Nargis Dutt Memorial Institute for Cancer and even the Fatima Khannum Cancer Hospital in Karachi built by the now Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan. Grover has had many reasons to be satisfied with life in spite of all the odds, but it is the result of his work in making his book a big success is the most satisfying character of the book of his life....

Among the other books which have just come out are a haphazard biography of the wrestler turned actor-director Dara Singh. And the books on the anvil are one on Rajendra Kumar also known as the “Jubilee Star",a book on one of the greatest actors, Balraj Sahni, written by his actor-writer son Parikshat Sahni and there are attempts being made to write the biographies of Manoj Kumar and Subhash Ghai.

There are as many subjects as any good writer would be lucky to find in the film industry, but where are the good writers who can write books which will do full justice to the many interesting stories that are waiting to be told?

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Raaj Grover, Yaadein Zara Zara