Posts tagged dev anand

How the Guide songs helped the film find a distributor

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3 days ago
by Fenil Seta in

Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 20, 2013)

 

Forty-eight years later, Dev Anand’s ‘crazy dream’ remains unforgettable for its songs: Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai, Din dhal jaaye, Gaata rahe mera dil and Piya toh se naina laage re. And it was Piya toh se naina laage re that found Guide a buyer.

After the debacle of the English version, directed by Tad Danielewski, there were no takers for the Hindi version of Guide. A couple of distributors gave it a thumbs-down and director Vijay Anand aka Goldie refused to screen it. The film remained in the cans till producer Yash Johar, who was with the Navketan banner at the time, persuaded a Delhi distributor to watch two songs.

According to Dev, as soon as Piya toh se… ended, this distributor told Johar he was buying the film, which then premiered at Mumbai’s Maratha Mandir in 1965. It received a lukewarm response from the film fraternity but enjoyed a 10-week run at the theatre. When drought hit Gujarat, posters of ‘Guide praying for rains’ mushroomed all over the state and the movie completed its silver jubilee in Ahmedabad. Dev was determined to risk his career as a hero for the part of Raju Guide, who lures the young and beautiful wife of an ageing archaeologist with the promise of fame, landing in prison for fraud instead and finally finding salvation, masquerading as a sadhu.

But it was the songs that landed Waheeda Rehman the role of Rosie in the movie. Danielewski had decided to cast Leela Naidu, who’d been paired More >

Mickey Nivelli finds family of Mumbai man who saved him

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3 weeks ago
by Fenil Seta in

Legendary filmmaker Mickey Nivelli’s six-decade hunt for the man who rescued him in 1952 comes to an end after a SUNDAY MiD DAY reader tracks down the saviour’s family

Shailesh Bhatia (MID-DAY; April 28, 2013)

 

Sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction. A week after SMD carried the story of legendary filmmaker Mickey Nivelli aka Harbance Kumar’s hunt for the man who saved his life 61 years ago, an enthusiastic reader managed to trace his saviour’s family.

On reading the story, avid SUNDAY MiD DAY reader, Vijay Mumwani, a businessman from Warden Road, recalled a story his friend told him two months ago. “Norma Talker, a family friend, narrated a similar incident to me over coffee. She told me about how her father had once brought home a starving young lad, who he had found lying in a maidan and nursed him back to health. There was an uncanny resemblance between her story and the SMD article, so I simply had to inform them,” he said.

An old photograph of late Dr Joe de Sousa, who saved a young Mickey Nivelli’s (top) life when the latter was jobless in Mumbai in 1952

The ecstatic Talker family got in touch with this reporter and emailed photographs of the late Dr Joe de Sousa, his daughter and granddaughter to Nivelli. After listening to the doctor’s daugher Norma’s recollection of the events of the fateful day, and looking at the photos, Nivelli confirmed that de Sousa is indeed the man who saved his life.

Meet the Talkers Narrating her story at her spacious Mahim More >

Be a fraternity, not just an industry-Karan Johar

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1 month ago
by Fenil Seta in

Karan Johar says that’s the one thing we can imbibe from the yesteryears of Hindi cinema.

Aakansha Naval-Shetye (DNA; April 7, 2013)

 

Having hosted his own talk show, been a celebrity guest on dance-based reality shows, and an emcee for many televised events, Karan Johar is no stranger to wooing the small screen audience.

Now in his latest assignment, he is the host of Bollywood@100, a 10-part series on History TV18 that traces the evolution of Indian cinema in the last century. This job by the filmmaker-hosts’s own admission, is proving to be a real eye-opener. KJo — who can easily be called a living encyclopedia on Bollywood, says, “Having been brought up in the fraternity, there’s a lot one knows. But because of this show my repertoire of knowledge of the history of Hindi cinema has vastly increased. There’s so much information that one kind of knew of, but the details I’ve learnt only after doing the show.”

A secret revealed! Talking about one such interesting nugget of information,  Karan says, “In a music episode we spoke about Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi and I didn’t know that Rafi saab actually gave up singing for a long period of time because he thought it was against Islam. And that’s when Kishore Kumar rose in the ranks.”

Corruption of ideas Interesting anecdotes apart, the show celebrates the centenary of Indian cinema. Karan explains, “There’s always pride that you belong to this industry. But some of us in this generation have refused the rich More >

Anand Recording Studio to get a facelift

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2 months ago
by Fenil Seta in

Soumyadipta Banerjee (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 9, 2013)

 

As Dev Anand’s bungalow on Zig Zag Road in Bandra’s Pali Hill is makes way for a swanky highrise, here is some good news. The legendary actor’s brainchild, Anand Recording Studio has been saved from a similar fate with his son leaving no stone unturned to bring the shuttered studio back to life.

The late actor had bought the 19,000 sq ft Pali Hill property in the early ‘50s and in 1986, established the recording studio to mix and dub films produced under the Navketan banner. Specialising in voiceovers, dubbing and surround mixes, this was one of the premier sound and dubbing facilities in its heyday and had become a second home to the veteran actor during the last 22 years of his life. However, the studio had to be closed down three years back and it was the late actor’s dying wish to reopen the facility. Now, Suneil Anand, the actor’s son is all set to fulfil his father’s last wish. He is not only planning to reopen the studio, but to give it a facelift.

Rubbishing rumours that the property has gone to the builders, Anand said: “Anand Recording Sudio has been Bollywood’s landmark for many years. We had to shut it down as the equipment that we had, had become obsolete. But, that doesn’t mean I am going to sell off my father’s dream.”

Anand plans to open the revamped studio soon. He said: “We are going to have a state-of-the-art studio with all the latest technology for sound recording, mixing and editing. We are going to More >

Films sanctify pestering and stalking of women

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4 months ago
by Fenil Seta in

Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar (THE TIMES OF INDIA; December 30, 2012)

 

The ghastly assault and rape of a female paramedic in Delhi has produced an avalanche of protest and comment on why we treat women so badly. But a major cause, the film industry, has hardly been mentioned. It has fostered thoroughly retrograde male attitudes that are at least partly responsible. Some feminists focus on the commodification of women in Bollywood’s “item numbers”, sex-laden dances by Isha Koppikar, Mallika Sherawat and others. Others highlight the popularity of rape scenes to titillate audiences. Old-time villain Ranjeet did close to 100 rape scenes, with the audience almost cheering him on.

Yet item numbers and rape scenes are not the main problem. After all, cabaret dancers and villains are not role models. What’s truly terrible is the manner in which film heroes have for decades pestered, stalked and forced their unwanted attentions on heroines in a thousand films, yet ended up getting the girl. That sends the most outrageous of all messages to the public: pestering girls is what heroes do, and a girl’s “no” actually means “yes.”

Hit film songs that glorify harassment and stalking have compounded the problem. These are perpetuated in memory and social attitudes through repeated humming of the songs and viewing of video clips.

Dev Anand was the great romantic lover of my youth. We watched him serenade Nalini Jaywant in the film Munimji (“jeevan ke safar mein rahi”), while pawing and More >

Dev Anand stands tall at Walk Of Stars

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5 months ago
by Fenil Seta in

Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 29, 2012)

 

The 2km stretch along a sea-facing promenade in Bandra, showcasing handprints and signatures of Hindi cinema greats, has been around since March this year. Aptly called ‘Walk of the Stars’, the endeavour by a popular television channel has so far unravelled statues of legends like Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor.

And now, it is the turn of the late Dev Anand to be put on the pedestal, literally. On December 4, veteran actress Waheeda Rehman will unveil a statue of the iconic actor at a well-attended ceremony at a suburban five star. We hear Amar Singh, Hema Malini, Asha Parekh, Prem Chopra and Govinda are among the guests invited to the event. And if sources are to be believed, after Dev-Saab, the very next statue could well be that of Dilip Kumar or Yash Chopra.

I want to play my dad in biopic-Dev Anand’s son

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6 months ago
by Fenil Seta in

Mohd Salman Khan (BOMBAY TIMES; October 27, 2012)

 

He may be Dev Anand’s son but, unfortunately, the fame that his father enjoyed has eluded him. Suneil Anand, who was recently in the capital, said that, considering the amount of biopics that are being made in Bollywood these days, a movie on his legendary father isn’t too much to ask for. “There have been films on a lot of prominent people in the industry. And many directors have done a good job at that. That’s why I have a feeling that someone or the other will definitely take up the responsibility of making a movie on my father. In fact, if nobody does, then I personally might start working on one. I’m even thinking of playing the lead if I make any such biopic on my late father.”

Suneil believes that he is trying to live up to his father’s expectations and fulfill the dreams which his father couldn’t. Suneil said, “My father was a man who never ever uttered the word ‘holiday’. He was a dedicated movie maker. In fact, before he died, he had many unfulfilled desires in his heart which I am trying to fulfill. I want to carry forward the legacy that he has left behind.”

Wish I could act with Aamir Khan-Waheeda Rehman

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7 months ago
by Fenil Seta in

Shakti Salgaonkar (DNA; October 16, 2012)

Waheeda Rehman DNA Research N Archives

As you enter her sea-facing bungalow, a portrait of a very young Waheeda Rehman looks demurely at you. As she enters the room, you notice, that little has changed. Her hair, perfectly held in place, a string of pearls and her signature smile in tow, Waheedaji goes down the memory lane with DNA. In your long standing career, we know you’ve done a million interviews. What is the one question that bores you, we will stay away from that question? (laughs) When people ask me when I started and how I started. Unfortunately, that is the question everybody asks. And even if they are all together, they ask the same question again and again. One wonders why they don’t think that this question has been asked and let me ask another one. I feel they don’t come prepared. Or maybe they don’t think we can answer (laughs), I don’t know.

Lifetime achievement, I’m sure you look back at your body of work and reminisce about the various characters you’ve essayed. What was the one role that was the most difficult? I would say my character in Guide. Because for that time it was a very bold subject and a bold role, I would say. More than 45 years ago, it was unimaginable to see a married woman, who walks out n her husband and starts living with Raju (played by Dev Anand). It was not a love story, because she doesn’t walk out on her husband because she is in love with Raju. She is angry with her husband More >

Suneil Anand on trip to NY with Dev Anand

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7 months ago
by Fenil Seta in

 

Suneil Anand recalls a memorable trip to father Dev Anand’s favourite American city, New York

As told to Ankit Ajmera (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 14, 2012)

 

My dad, the legendary Dev Anand and I often travelled together overseas. This picture was clicked in 2007 in New York, dad’s favourite American city. It was taken by Ravi Adhikari, a US-based photojournalist at Times Square. He had taken an appointment with dad to shoot some pictures for his personal collection. What you see here is a candid shot.

We were staying at the Radisson Martinique, near Times Square. Dad liked to get away for short spans on his own. Although he wanted to walk the streets with anonymity, someone would spot him and he’d be back to signing autographs and posing for photographs.

He’d catch up on the latest Broadway plays and he loved to browse through New York’s many stores. Shoes, caps and mufflers were his weakness. He preferred small boutiques to branded stores.

We were walking past the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and he told me about his meeting there with Hollywood producer David O. Selznick, known for Gone With The Wind (1939). Sometime during the end of 1964, Selznick had planned to cast dad opposite Oscar-winning actor Jennifer Jones, in his next venture. Unfortunately, the project never happened, as Selznick passed away the very next year.

Dad was fond of music. He was a huge fan of Kishore Kumar, who first sang for dad in Ziddi (1948). Frank Sinatra was also a favourite.

Dad had gone to NYC More >

Second innings in Bollywood for Sandeep Patil’s son

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7 months ago
by Fenil Seta in

Shakti Shetty (MID-DAY; October 4, 2012)

 

A cricketer’s kid may not always want to follow his dad’s footsteps when it comes to choosing a profession. Saif Ali Khan is a prime example of this. And following in Chhote Nawab’s footsteps, Chirag Patil is excited to play a major role in Amjad Khan’s upcoming project. Starting his acting career in a TV serial at the age of 20, Chirag’s next project was a Marathi film followed by a role in Dev Anand’s Chargesheet. In his upcoming film Le Gaya Saddam, he’s playing Raghuveer Yadav’s grandson.

Talking about his reintroduction to the Hindi film industry, the 24-year-old believes one should stick to what he or she is good at. “I think I’m comfortable in front of the camera more than anything else and working with people like Amjad only helps me grow as an actor.” Son of former Indian batsman Sandeep Patil, Chirag says his father played a huge role in this decision. “He was clear from the very beginning that I wasn’t meant for cricket. Cricket to me starts with Sachin Tendulkar and ends with him.”

Like father, like son Sandeep Patil dabbled in Bollywood once upon a time. He starred opposite Poonam Dhillon and Debashree Roy in the 1985 film Kabhi Ajnabi. Interestingly, Syed Kirmani – the then wicketkeeper of India played the role of the villain in it.

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