The long-winded saga of the most contentious of the subjects in this country, related to a place of worship, never seems to end. It has now been a quarter century almost and from the verdict of Supreme Court last week, it appears that we will have to wait for another two years for the final decision.
Reminded me of the Hindi films which took such a long time in the making that when they were released, the outcome was far different from that intended originally. In this week's blog, we take a look at some of these "long gestation period" films, good and bad, hits and flops ...but released, finally.
There are another set of films which have been shelved, but ...वो कहानी फिर सही !
On to the films which gave the word "project" a bad name :)
Going by the starting date of the film, we have the Magnum Opus Mughal e Azam taking the prime place in the list. The labour of love of the great K.Asif was in the making for a period of 16 years, but it was worth the wait !
The film was first conceived in 1944, while Asif was watching a play written by Imtiaz Ali Taj about the Mughal prince Salim and Anarkali , a courtesan in Akbar's court.An early announcement on Mughal-e-Azam appeared on the cover of the November 1945 issue of the Filmindia magazine. The star cast was named as Veena, Nargis and Chandramohan, who were to play Bahar, Anarkali and Akbar respectively. Durga Khote was signed to play Jodha. For the main lead Salim, Sapru was chosen after Asif had rejected a young actor by the name of Dilip Kumar !
The film was progressing briskly and about one-fourth was complete when partition happened. With this, the financier of the film left for the new nation and Asif was left high-and-dry. On the top of it, Chandramohan breathed his last and the film was as good as over.
But this was the film that was never made.
Even the film which was finally made took 7 long years !
Asif found Shapoorji Pallonji who financed the film after 1953. The reasons for the film being delayed are not difficult to guess. Asif, being a perfectionist, would devote time, effort and money on each and every detail of all aspects of the film. The magnificent innovative photography, the signing of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, the art direction and costumes were all planned and executed with painstaking details, resulting in huge time and cost over-runs. But Asif was not a man to be stopped by such worldly things, as he was in pursuit of artistic excellence.
Tailors were brought from Delhi to stitch the costumes, specialists from Surat were hired to do the embroidery, goldsmiths from Hyderabad designed jewellery, craftsmen from Kolhapur worked on the crowns, iron-smiths from Rajasthan made the weaponry and shoemakers from Agra produced the royal footwear.
For the battle scenes, 2,000 cameras, 4,000 horses and 8,000 soldiers were used. Most of the soldiers were taken on loan from the Jaipur Regiment of the Indian Army.
The cast changed and Prithviraj Kapoor played the title role, while Madhubala was the courtesan to Dilip Kumar's prince.
The product was , undoubtedly, awesome in all respects and to this day it is said that nobody has been able to cite and goof or anachronism or a mistake in the whole film. Nobody goes out of character and the language used is chaste Urdu, even when most of the audience may not very conversant. Yet, they lapped it up , making it an all time blockbuster.
In the biography of Naushad, it is mentioned that the style of K.Asif was entirely different from ny other director. Asif was a perfectionist but being a genius, he could be disorderly and yet synthesize the final product perfectly. It is mentioned that a song was supposed to be played seven times in the film, binding it together. Only three parts of the song could be recorded and shot before Asif's death. Only he knew how to make all the different pieces fall in place. Sanjeev Kumar also died in 1985. K.Asif's widow wanted to somehow resurrect the film and with the help of producer K.C.Bokadia, the film was released in 1986, after a gap of 23 years from being announced, with whatever portions were available in the cans.
The film titled Love and God was, but a shadow of what the great film-maker had imagined, as none of his assistants were able to do it the way he could. Still, the film has a "heritage value" , being the last effort of a legend !
In the late 60s, a film on a story of a love triangle was planned with the star cast of Waheeda Rehman, Raaj Kumar and Sadhana. The film took a long time to make ( probably due to financing issues and ego problems amongst stars) and was shelved a number of times. In 1968, when the film was planned, it was originally called Ulfat but when it was released in 1994, the title was....Ulfat Ki Nayi Manzilein !
It was Raaj Kumar who took it upon himself to release the shelved film but Sadhana did not want to be a part of it .However, the film was completed without her ( body double was used with sunglasses on face) and released. Check out this song , in which we see only the back of the character played by her.
For the bond between the Rajesh Khanna and Kishore Kumar, this film was the last link and the lyrics mirror the emotion so well in this song
The next in line is a film started in 1994 but after flitting from titles like Yeh Pyaar Hi Toh Hai to Sambandh , eventually got released as Sanam Teri Kasam. Saif Ali Khan woke up one fine morning in 2oo9 to find a film that he had worked with Pooja Bhatt, almost 15 years ago, get released in theatres!The film was involved in a legal battle between Ultra and Sudhakar Bokade and was shelved after being completed. In 2000 Lawrence D'Souza took up the film but could not release it. The saga of making/releasing of this film is no less than a masala film with elements of legal tussle, Mafia and Bomb Blasts !
Some other films which fit the bill are Hum Tumhare Hain sanam ( 1997/2002). Mehbooba(1999/2008), Deewana Main Deewana (2003/2013) and Milenge Milenge(2004/2010).
The blog can not be complete unless one film is mentioned. The film released in 1983 was called Film Hi Film and it had a lot of footage of shelved films woven round a story. in this manner, so many films , shelved and canned, got to be shown on the silver screen, albeit partially. A tribute to those films which did not get a release.
Reminded me of the Hindi films which took such a long time in the making that when they were released, the outcome was far different from that intended originally. In this week's blog, we take a look at some of these "long gestation period" films, good and bad, hits and flops ...but released, finally.
There are another set of films which have been shelved, but ...वो कहानी फिर सही !
On to the films which gave the word "project" a bad name :)
Going by the starting date of the film, we have the Magnum Opus Mughal e Azam taking the prime place in the list. The labour of love of the great K.Asif was in the making for a period of 16 years, but it was worth the wait !
The film was first conceived in 1944, while Asif was watching a play written by Imtiaz Ali Taj about the Mughal prince Salim and Anarkali , a courtesan in Akbar's court.An early announcement on Mughal-e-Azam appeared on the cover of the November 1945 issue of the Filmindia magazine. The star cast was named as Veena, Nargis and Chandramohan, who were to play Bahar, Anarkali and Akbar respectively. Durga Khote was signed to play Jodha. For the main lead Salim, Sapru was chosen after Asif had rejected a young actor by the name of Dilip Kumar !
The film was progressing briskly and about one-fourth was complete when partition happened. With this, the financier of the film left for the new nation and Asif was left high-and-dry. On the top of it, Chandramohan breathed his last and the film was as good as over.
But this was the film that was never made.
Even the film which was finally made took 7 long years !
Asif found Shapoorji Pallonji who financed the film after 1953. The reasons for the film being delayed are not difficult to guess. Asif, being a perfectionist, would devote time, effort and money on each and every detail of all aspects of the film. The magnificent innovative photography, the signing of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, the art direction and costumes were all planned and executed with painstaking details, resulting in huge time and cost over-runs. But Asif was not a man to be stopped by such worldly things, as he was in pursuit of artistic excellence.
Tailors were brought from Delhi to stitch the costumes, specialists from Surat were hired to do the embroidery, goldsmiths from Hyderabad designed jewellery, craftsmen from Kolhapur worked on the crowns, iron-smiths from Rajasthan made the weaponry and shoemakers from Agra produced the royal footwear.
For the battle scenes, 2,000 cameras, 4,000 horses and 8,000 soldiers were used. Most of the soldiers were taken on loan from the Jaipur Regiment of the Indian Army.
The product was , undoubtedly, awesome in all respects and to this day it is said that nobody has been able to cite and goof or anachronism or a mistake in the whole film. Nobody goes out of character and the language used is chaste Urdu, even when most of the audience may not very conversant. Yet, they lapped it up , making it an all time blockbuster.
Kamal Amrohi was another director who was very particular about every single aspect of the film he worked on. Kamal and Meena Kumari had a much- touted love affair and had married in 1952, a little before the film Pakeezah was planned. Kamal's film Daera ( 1953) had failed at the box-office and he was wanting to make a film on a grand scale to show his directorial brilliance: thus Pakeezah was conceived.
But it was not an easy film to make. Pakeezah was launched as a Black & White venture. Later with color technology coming in, Kamal started it all again in the new color format. But soon after that when Cinemascope also got introduced, He now wanted to shoot it in Cinemascope.
The film was shot in Black and White and had Ashok Kumar as the hero. This song clip gives us a glimpse of what Kamal and Meena had wanted to present , before the film ran into rough weather.
In 1964, Kamal and Meena separated and that brought a pause in the production of the project. For four years the film was in doldrums. The patch-up between Kamal and Meena was facilitated by Sunil Dutt and Nargis. Pakeezah became the raison d'être for the two to come together again and complete the film. By then Ashok Kumar was already doing character roles and for the male lead , the actors considered were Dhaarmendra, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar and Raaj Kumar. Raaj Kumar got the final nod.Being the writer of the film too, every line that he wrote was keeping Meena Kumari in mind.
Just when the film was moving at a brisk pace, the music director Ghulam Mohammad passed away and Naushad was requested to step in. The cinematographer Joseph Wirsching, a confidante of Kamal also breathed his last and as a tribute to the great technician,over a dozen of Bombay's top cinematographers stepped in as and when they had a break from their other assignments, and they maintained an even look.
Kamal Amrohi sketched all the set designs and camera movements, and personally selected every costume, right down to the bangles worn by the minor characters. The haveli in Pakeezah is inspired by their family haveli back home in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh and an exact replica was recreated in Mumbai. Pakeezah showed exactly how their home looked like -- the same windows, chandeliers, arches and curtains.
Just when the film was moving at a brisk pace, the music director Ghulam Mohammad passed away and Naushad was requested to step in. The cinematographer Joseph Wirsching, a confidante of Kamal also breathed his last and as a tribute to the great technician,over a dozen of Bombay's top cinematographers stepped in as and when they had a break from their other assignments, and they maintained an even look.
Kamal Amrohi sketched all the set designs and camera movements, and personally selected every costume, right down to the bangles worn by the minor characters. The haveli in Pakeezah is inspired by their family haveli back home in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh and an exact replica was recreated in Mumbai. Pakeezah showed exactly how their home looked like -- the same windows, chandeliers, arches and curtains.
The film was finally released in 1972 and though it initially failed to create a stir, Meena Kumari's death soon after became the trigger for the film to gross a handsome amount. The music was very popular, despite being out of the current trend.
The film K.Asif wanted to make after Mughal e Azam was based on the legendary love story of Laila and Majnu . Titled Ishq aur Khuda , the film was started in 1963 with Guru Dutt playing Majnoon to Nimmi's Laila. The film appeared to be jinxed a soon after the commencement Guru Dutt breathed his last after a drug overdose.The long and troubled making of the film continued as Sanjeev Kumar stepped in for Guru Dutt, but in 1971, K.Asif passed away, with 30% of the film, as envisioned, yet to be completed.
In the biography of Naushad, it is mentioned that the style of K.Asif was entirely different from ny other director. Asif was a perfectionist but being a genius, he could be disorderly and yet synthesize the final product perfectly. It is mentioned that a song was supposed to be played seven times in the film, binding it together. Only three parts of the song could be recorded and shot before Asif's death. Only he knew how to make all the different pieces fall in place. Sanjeev Kumar also died in 1985. K.Asif's widow wanted to somehow resurrect the film and with the help of producer K.C.Bokadia, the film was released in 1986, after a gap of 23 years from being announced, with whatever portions were available in the cans.
The film titled Love and God was, but a shadow of what the great film-maker had imagined, as none of his assistants were able to do it the way he could. Still, the film has a "heritage value" , being the last effort of a legend !
In the late 60s, a film on a story of a love triangle was planned with the star cast of Waheeda Rehman, Raaj Kumar and Sadhana. The film took a long time to make ( probably due to financing issues and ego problems amongst stars) and was shelved a number of times. In 1968, when the film was planned, it was originally called Ulfat but when it was released in 1994, the title was....Ulfat Ki Nayi Manzilein !
It was Raaj Kumar who took it upon himself to release the shelved film but Sadhana did not want to be a part of it .However, the film was completed without her ( body double was used with sunglasses on face) and released. Check out this song , in which we see only the back of the character played by her.
Another film started in 70s had a cast of Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha and was titled Aparajit. Amitabh had signed on for this film in his struggling days in the 70's, when he was a newcomer to the industry and looking for work.The shooting began in 1971 and was initially directed by Mukul Dutt who left the project in 1976 after having numerous problems. Ashok Gupta took over the project in 1993, by which time its title was Yaar meri Zindagi. He completed it within a year’s time but had issues releasing the film. Obviously the film fell prey due to certain legal issues that it was entangled in. Apparently, the director and the financier had some irreconcilable differences over which the movie was dragged to court. The two top stars also had ups and downs in their relationship .
The film finally got released in 2008, after a 37 long years, by which time everything was dated and the film had no selling point whatsoever. This was evident in the large number of goofs that were reported by those who saw the film, which had only 20 prints released.
In the climax Amitabh Bachchan is played by a body double and only long shots are taken . The appearances and hair-styles of the two heroes flitted between 70s and 90s many times in the film. Since all the reels were not used there was a lot of discontinuity in the narrative.
In the climax Amitabh Bachchan is played by a body double and only long shots are taken . The appearances and hair-styles of the two heroes flitted between 70s and 90s many times in the film. Since all the reels were not used there was a lot of discontinuity in the narrative.
The next film in line is a 1974 film called Love in Bombay which got released in...hold your breath... 2013 !
The film had Joy Mukherjee in the lead ( he was the producer and director of the film, too) and in one of films of early 70s, Bombay to Goa , this film was referred ( Kishore Kumar is going to shoot for this film when his car breaks down !). The film was completed in 1974 but Joy did not have any money to release the film. Film-making is essentially a commercial activity and the product has to sell. The 70s was the period of Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan and Joy Mukherjee was not a saleable star by then. Probably that is why the film remained in the cans. Joy did try to release the movie in the 1980s and 1990s as the movie was a labour of love, but it was too costly to do so.When satellite premieres of films came into fashion in 2000, his sons Sunjoy and Munjoy suggested having a world satellite premiere.' But Joy wanted it released in a theatre, not on television. Joy used to get the negatives cleaned manually, as they were kept in cold storage( pun intended !) . Finally after his death, his sons got the film released in 2013, a total of 42 years after the launching of the film.
The film had Joy Mukherjee in the lead ( he was the producer and director of the film, too) and in one of films of early 70s, Bombay to Goa , this film was referred ( Kishore Kumar is going to shoot for this film when his car breaks down !). The film was completed in 1974 but Joy did not have any money to release the film. Film-making is essentially a commercial activity and the product has to sell. The 70s was the period of Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan and Joy Mukherjee was not a saleable star by then. Probably that is why the film remained in the cans. Joy did try to release the movie in the 1980s and 1990s as the movie was a labour of love, but it was too costly to do so.When satellite premieres of films came into fashion in 2000, his sons Sunjoy and Munjoy suggested having a world satellite premiere.' But Joy wanted it released in a theatre, not on television. Joy used to get the negatives cleaned manually, as they were kept in cold storage( pun intended !) . Finally after his death, his sons got the film released in 2013, a total of 42 years after the launching of the film.
The 80s film produced and directed by Kishore Kumar ( his last) took more than five years to see the light of the day, since Kishore Kumar died in 1987. His friend Rajesh Khanna helped Amit Kumar complete the film, which was released in 1989. Kishore's son Sumit was shown as a small baby in the film and then as a 5 year old too !
For the bond between the Rajesh Khanna and Kishore Kumar, this film was the last link and the lyrics mirror the emotion so well in this song
In the 90s, when Shah Rukh Khan was making terrific decisions by signing films like Baazigar and Darr, he also made a blunder by taking up Jadoo, co-starring Raveena Tandon. A social romantic drama, it was a mess even on paper. The actors realised that later, and walked out of the project. In fact the lead pair was asked to enact a long kissing scene, which they refused and so left the film and the film was shelved. The producers made up by roping in newcomers, used the footage of Sharukh and Raveena, dubbed their voices, changed the title to "Ye lamhe judai ke" and released the film in 2003, a full 10 years after the muhurat !
The next in line is a film started in 1994 but after flitting from titles like Yeh Pyaar Hi Toh Hai to Sambandh , eventually got released as Sanam Teri Kasam. Saif Ali Khan woke up one fine morning in 2oo9 to find a film that he had worked with Pooja Bhatt, almost 15 years ago, get released in theatres!The film was involved in a legal battle between Ultra and Sudhakar Bokade and was shelved after being completed. In 2000 Lawrence D'Souza took up the film but could not release it. The saga of making/releasing of this film is no less than a masala film with elements of legal tussle, Mafia and Bomb Blasts !
The blog can not be complete unless one film is mentioned. The film released in 1983 was called Film Hi Film and it had a lot of footage of shelved films woven round a story. in this manner, so many films , shelved and canned, got to be shown on the silver screen, albeit partially. A tribute to those films which did not get a release.
3 comments:
A very thoughtful and mostly unknown facet of film industry chosen. For every film released, there are several which get bogged down at various stages and never see he light of the day. The reasons are various as myriad.. One is very fortunate indeed if it happens in the initial stages of production. Cutting the losses and getting out will be easy. iF it advances quite a bit one has to sink a lot more in trying to retrieve the situation. I would like to give a couple of examples and as I do not know much about Hindi movie industry, I resort to South Indian movies.
V. Nagiah was a singing-actor, who charged one lakh rupees as remuneration for the for the first time in the history of Indian film industry. He was also Producer, Director, Music Director, etc. He produced quite a few master pieces like 'Bhakta Potana', 'Tyaagayya' etc. He commenced production of 'Bhakta Ramadaas'; His movie got stuck due to lack of finance. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. months and months into years. one of the principal characters of the movie was that of Kabir portrayed by Gourinaatha Sastry who died. Now what to do? Finance was more difficult to come by. Finally, it was decided to take in G. Venkateswara Rao for that role and complete the movie. For logistics reasons, the movie makers have their own logic in the sequence in which a movie is shot and definitely not in the sequence of story. Now finally when the movie was released the character Kabir was portrayed by two actors haphazardly and the movie bombed.
'Parthiban Kanavu' is a magnum opus of modern Tamil literature. One gentleman , a total novice attempted it. He booked Gemini Ganesh and Vyjayantimala and started production in Techni color when the norm was still black and white. Again finances were a problem. His father, a leading advocate came to know this and he retrieved the situation by investing his personal wealth. But the delay had taken its toll. The 'talk' about a movie is very crucial for the success or failure of a movie. The movie bombed and the family ruined.
Third and last. Movie makers prefer girl child artistes for boys' roles too for their soft looks a-la Daisy Irani, Honey Irani. A bilingual mega production commenced in the form of 'Lava-Kusha". The movie was half completed when problems cropped up. It was finances, ego, and what not. It got terribly delayed. The girls who were portraying the roles of Lav and Kush were no more suitable. The entire production was jettisoned an the movie re-shot. it was, however, a block buster.
Another dark side of the loss of outstanding musical creations, which remain in the cans for ever.
I hope was not too verbose even to my standards.
This blog takes you a notch higher in the hierarchy of bloggers. Simply outstanding. I was not aware of the Shahrukh- Raveena starrer- Jadoo, Keep them coming Amitabh- you are making me an addict of your writings.
I am sharing it and mailing it too
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