THE MAN WHOSE AMBITION IT WAS TO MAKE A FILM BASED ON MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Ali Peter John

The world was still young in 2000 and I was only fifty, a mild stone which was celebrated by the Messiah of humanity , Sunil Dutt in a way I couldn't believe and I still can't .A few days later ,I woke up at 3.30.in the night and started writing and for the next five days and nights I was only writing and at the end I realised that I had written the entire story of my life till then .I felt a wave of relief sweeping across me for days, I don't know why .

I didn't talk about what I had written to anyone, till I met my friend Kulbhushan Gupta who had now become a film producer after spending years as a journalist . I showed him what I had written over lunch and before we could finish lunch , he said "this just has to be published". I asked him who would publish it .He said he would publish it . He started his own publishing company, Primus Books and gave my "Book" for printing in a printing press in Goregaon. And was I happy ?

The very next afternoon , I was to have lunch with my great friend M.F.Husain at The Grand Maratha Sheraton .I was too excited about my book being published and mentioned it to him and he immediately asked me who was doing the cover and I fumbled and before I could find an answer , he said he would do the cover and that I should come and have lunch with him in the same hotel the next day and collect his painting for my cover the next day . I couldn't believe what was happening to me . Husain sahab came in time the next day ,but forgot to bring his painting . I rushed to the Taj Mahal Hotel in the luggage compartment of a train and was delighted to find his painting in a shoe shop called Joy Shoes which belonged to Husain's sahab young friend .

When I went back , Husain Sahab was still waiting for me and had not ordered his lunch.

Miracles didn't stop happening. I met the Messiah again and he was more excited than me and arranged to have the launch function for my book. And now when I look back and when I look at all the other launch functions , in all humility I can say that there has never been and there can never be another book launch function like the one "Life-Bits and Pieces ", my autobiography had .

The response to my book was mind -boggling. Gulzar called me overnight and said he gave me permission to write many more books like it , Vijay Tendulkar said he didn't know that he knew a great writer like me and by the time I received all the appreciation I fell on my knees and cried like a child .What had I done , oh my God ???

I was in hospital , when a man came looking for me during off visiting hours .He said his name was Kirit Trivedi and he had read my book and wanted my permission to make a film based on it .I said "Make it". He laughed and said "I have come to strike a deal , I know you don't think about money too much , but please accept this cheque on my behalf. We are making the film and you will receive more money". I put the cheque under my pillow and forgot all about it till my nurse Annas reminded me about it .It was a cheque for one lakh of rupees ,Annas told me .

I did my homework about Kirit Trivedi . He was in the shows business and had done some of the biggest shows with Lata Mangeshkar and Amitabh Bachchan . He kept travelling between America , Canada and Bombay . He was a close friend of Amitabh and his secretary, Sheetal Jain and had a permanent suite in the Centaur Hotel . He was also one of the producers of the film "Bade Miyaan Chhote Miyaan"....

Trivedi next met me with what was a long and detailed agreement about the film to be made based on my book. One reading of it gave me a look into the heaven I would be living in once the film was made ...

The film was to be directed by Sanjeev Sivan , the younger brother of Santosh Sivan the outstanding cinematographer and Trivedi was thinking of casting Irrfan Khan to play my character and Tabu to play my mother . The director, his wife Deepti and their team had even done some extensive recce in the village where I lived for the first twenty eight years of my life and had first fallen in love ....

All seemed to go well . I was even being paid from time to time . Then , I was told that Kirit Trivedi , the man with a golden heart with a beautiful wife , two young sons and a world full of friends was suffering from acute back ache and one day I heard that he was dead . I was not so sad about my book not being made into a film, but about a good man being taken away from life before his time and before he could fulfil all his ambitions and dreams for himself and for his near and dear ones .