Director – Actor Combo: Some Gems
iView Author: SATYENDRA JHA (Pune, India)
Email: satyendrajha30 [at]gmail[dot]com
Like most of my other articles on PFC, this one has also got its seeds from one of the comments on the beautiful articles written by Ratnakar and Crazyrals paying homage to the great Shakti Samanta, who left us for heavenly abode last week. Well, the comment in question was how Shakti-da gave some memorable hits combining with Shammi Kapoor and Rajesh Khanna, and how his association with Amitabh didn’t work at all.
Well, that set me thinking about the great director-actor combinations. I set myself searching the net, and surprisingly, didn’t come across many such combinations in Indian Cinema being mentioned anywhere. On the contrary, I ended up having a handful of information about the counterparts in Hollywood. I decided to include the best of both the worlds, and compile it by way of this article. However, the combinations mentioned under Indian cinema are purely out of my own knowledge, and hence, limited. The names are definitely not in any order of preference, nor is the compilation seeking to be exhaustive. So here goes:
Tim Burton – Johny Depp: A lot has been written about Tim Burton’s movies on PFC by Ratnakar, and I would recommend everyone to read those, if they have not already. Both Burton & Depp are considered to be maverick, and their movies have been dark, moody and often disturbing for many. But what cinematically exhilarating movies they have made. Edword Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride and Sweeny Todd. And they are coming out with Alice in Wonderland this year. This association has definitely given us something macabre to chew on for the rest of our lives.
Tim Burton – Helena Bonham Carter: Can we discuss one and leave the other? Almost all the movies mentioned above, and add to that Planet of the Apes and Big Fish. And yes, she is there in Alice in Wonderland too.
Martin Scorsese – Robert De Niro: I should probably have started with this combination! They have done eight movies together till now, and most of them have been nominated in Oscars in one category or the other. Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, New York-New York, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear and Casino. The list itself is mind-boggling, but the quality is simply awe-inspiring. Unfortunately for all the film-lovers, they do not seem to be coming together anymore. Scorsese moved on to his next association you see…
Martin Scorsese – Leonardo Di Caprio: Yes, I was referring to them in the previous sentence. Scorsese picked up on Di Caprio on a hunch in Gangs of New York, and went on to do The Aviator and The Departed with him as well. All the three movies had created an Oscar buzz of their own. There are not many movies between them, but both of them are not yet spent, so we can expect some more.
David Fincher – Brad Pitt: Again a favourite combination of many. Like the previous Jodi, they have also not done many movies together, but what sets them apart is the awesome line-up they have managed. Seven, Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button have all been one of the most talked about movies of their time.
Richard Linklater – Ethan Hawke: If Ratnakar has virtually monopolised Tim Burton and David Fincher, then Crazyrals can definitely call Richard Linklater his own. Ethan Hawke has worked in six movies with him (Linklater, not Rals, u silly…) till now. Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, The Newton Guys, Tape, Waking Life and Fast-food Nation are all revered by us in their own unique way.
Ridley Scott – Russel Crowe: I didn’t have much idea about either the movie Gladiator, or the hero Russel Crowe when the movie was about to release. But being a cricket fanatic, and realising that the hero was the cousin of the great Crowe-brothers of New Zealand, I wanted to check out how good was he. Boy, was he good or what…! Sold out upon watching him. Oscar was just a formality. They kept coming together with A Good Year, American Gangster and Body of Lies, and are coming together again in Nottingham, to be released later this year, but for me they deserve to be in the all-time greatest combo list just on the basis of Gladiator.
Steven Soderbergh – George Clooney: Out of Sight, Ocean-series, Solaris and The Good German. Nothing great, the purists might say. Effective nonetheless, I would like to say. Besides, Ocean-series is my guilty-pleasure. Well, just to strengthen my case, I would throw Julia Roberts also into the equation. Erin Brockowich, anyone?
Apart from the above, there have been certain combinations that have preferred to work with each other either over a really long period of time, the quality of the movies notwithstanding. Woody Allen – Mia Farrow (Thirteen movies over a period of 10 years), John Ford – John Wayne (Tweny-one movies over almost four decades), and Sydney Pollack – Robert Redford (Seven movies) easily come to mind, but the great Akira Kurosawa beats them all by working with two of his most trusted actors, Toshiro Mifune (16 movies) and Takashi Shimuna (19 movies) in almost all his movies between 1948 and 1965. Of course, in many of these movies, the two actors worked together as well, hence the numbers look so mind-boggling.
There is another category, in which the director-actor have stuck together to create a series of sorts, and they have no choice to continue, for the sake of continuity, if nothing else. George Lucas / Steven Spielberg – Harrison Ford combo is the front-runner as well as the clear winner in this. Their Star Wars and Indiana Jones series needs no introduction whatsoever.
However, my eternal favourite would be Quentin Tarantino – Uma Thurman pair, although they do not qualify in the strictest sense, having done only Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill together. It is the passion-for-cinema that they share which made Kill Bill the phenomenon that it is. Statistically speaking though, its Samuel L. Jackson who qualifies to be paired with Tarantino in this article, having done no less than four movies with the maverick filmmaker.
Well, so much about the Hollywood. What about Indian Cinema? As the article mentions in the beginning, the thought itself came with Shakti Samanta – Shammi Kapoor / Rajesh Khanna equation. But there are some more that come to mind off-hand:
Prakash Mehra / Manmohan Desai – Amitabh Bachchan: Probably AB is what he is today, thanks mostly to these two filmmakers, and some of AB’s biggest hits of all time have been courtesy the two. To say anything else would be to state the obvious. Statistically, AB has done seven films with the former, and nine with the latter. (Before I face a similar backlash like my Salman Khan post about the BO success of the movies, let me please accept that Ganga Jamuna Saraswati and Toofan with Desai and Jaadugar with Mehra were utter flops, and arguably the only bad-phase of AB’s career).
Gulzar – Sanjeev Kumar: Hope our very own Oz-bhai reads this, because I know I am talking about his favourite combo here. The ‘intellectual’s combination’, as some might call it, all the six of their movies are a case-study for the film-buffs in itself. I have personally written about these two geniuses on different occasions on PFC itself. I better stop here, or else it will keep talking about them for the rest of the article.
Basu Chatterjee / Hrishikesh Mukherjee – Amol Palekar: Another eternal favourite, and another obvious choice. Another undisputed selection. Another “write-a-separate-post-on-me” screaming topic. Pachaas Meel Door Jab Koi Filmy Bore Ho Jaata Hai Toh Log Kehte hain, Koi Basu/Hrishi-da – Amol Palekar Film Dekhlo, Mood Refresh Ho Jaayega…
Yash Chopra – Shashi Kapoor: Yeah I know. For many, this might turn out to be the surprise element of this article. I couldn’t count how many movies they have done together, but suffice it to say that they worked together in a movie called Dharmaputra, when one was not “the Yash Chopra” and the other was not “the Shashi Kapoor”. And they worked together in most of the movies through the 70’s, Shashi often providing the perfect foil to the “angry-young-man” in them.
Last but certainly not the least:
Satyajit Ray – Soumitra Chatterjee / Utpal Dutt: The eternal favourites of Ray provide a perfect comparison with the Akira Kurosawa – Toshiro Mifune / Takashi Shimuna phenomenon. Soumitra & Utpal needed ray as much as he needed them. Creative-marriage at its best..
Disclaimer: I am not much exposed to the regional films,especially from South, so if I have missed out on any of the combinations of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mohan Lal, Mammooty, MGR, Shivaji Ganeshan, Rajni, Kamalhasan, Mani Ratnam, Chiranjeevi, Mahesh Babu, RGV, Shankar Nag or any other such, I request all of you to come forward and add your own two cents to the topic. Comments, good or bad, are always welcome.
Tags: Amitabh Bachchan, amol palekar, basu chatterjee, Brad Pitt, David Fincher, ethan hawke, George Clooney, gulzar, hrishikesh mukherjee, Johny Depp, Leonardo Di Caprio, Manmohan Desai, Martin Scorsese, Prakash Mehra, Richard Linklater, Ridley Scott, robert de niro, russel crowe, Sanjeev Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Steven Soderbergh, tim burton, Yash Chopra
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
david dhawan and govinda
coen bros and frances mcdormand
wong kar wai and tony leung
If we try to look there will be many but leaving this aside and coming to the topic and considering my familiarity with the directors work I would say my least preferred combination is Brad Pitt and David Fincher.
“Pachaas Meel Door Jab Koi Filmy Bore Ho Jaata Hai Toh Log Kehte hain, Koi Basu/Hrishi-da – Amol Palekar Film Dekhlo, Mood Refresh Ho Jaayega…”
Kyaa baat kahe hai….
1:Yash Chopra -Amitabh,
2:Ismail Merchant-Shashi Kapoor
3:Shyam Benegal-Naseeruddin Shah
3:Shyam Benegal-Shabana Azami
4:Pedro Almodovar-Penelope Cruz
5:Woody Allen-Diane Keaton
6:Alfred Hitchcock-Jimmy Stewart
7:Priyadarshan-Ompuri
8:Paul Verhoeven -Rutger Hauer
9:Govind Nihalani-Ompuri
and most awaited combo—
10:Kanti shah-Mithun
Ingmar Bergman-Liv Ullmann
Mahesh Bhatt-Anupam Kher
@ papaji: thanks. yeah, ur suggestions r good, but i hd to limit my article within a certain limit. but how cud i miss David Dhawan – Govinda? my mistake…
Steven Spielberg-Leonardo DiCaprio
@ Jahanpanah: thanks for the comment. to each his own buddy. personally, i was so shocked after watching Seven as well as Fight Club. i liked Benjamin Button as well, but the first two worked big time for me.
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maybe the genre doesnt attract u much… but if that were the case, im sure u wudnt like the tim-burton movies either…
@ Yayaver: thanks. tht improvisation-of-a-quote came suddenly to mind, and i went ahead with the flow…. nice to know it evoked a laugh in u…
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ur ‘other than Indian cinema’ suggestions r mostly there in almost all the “lists” i came across on net, so thts a proof of their combo being acknowledged widely.
Kanti Shah – Mithun… LOL. i wud say TLV Prasad – Mithun is a good competition as well…
@ Sahil: Spielberg – Leo…? Catch Me if U Can. what else? and i guess that too was more a Tom Hanks movie…
@ yayaver: mahesh bhatt – anupam kher have done geat movies in the beginning: saransh, janam, daddy, dil hai ke manta nahin. guess the subsequent movies werent that great…
maybe im missing something…
@Satyendra: nice write-up again…way to go…
itni izzat afzaiye ka shukriya mere dost
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jahan hrishi da aur prakash mehra likha wahan manmohan desai aur yash chopra bhi likh dete amitabh ke saath … they did some great work
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mani ratnam – madhavan
aur minimum 3 fil ka criteria hai to abhishek bachchan – mani ratnam bhi sahi hai
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not many may have noticed but mukul anand – amitabh bachchan were fantastic too
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shakti da – sharmila
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kjo/adi chopra – srk
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shyam benegal – naseer/om puri
good one oye!
akshay kumar – vipul shah
sohail khan – salman khan
suraj barjatiya – salman khan
@Magik – Sohail Khan & Salman Khan????
Lolz..no body except sallu will work for sohail. And most importantly, its very easy for them to coodrinate…ek hi ghar me hain to screening ka time bachta hai, saath me shoot pe jaate hain to petrol ka kharcha bachta hai…etc etc.
~Ashu
KJ – SRK !!!!! :p :p :p :p
@ Satyendra Jha
sirjee, I’ve watched Tim Burton movies (not all, though) and liked them. I don’t prefer David Fincher doesn’t automatically makes me hate Tim Burton as well.
Personally, I’ve found the collaboration of Brad Pitt-Fincher to be overrated and hyped. As it happens sometimes that your expectations are too much but you doesn’t find the movie up to that.
I didn’t find anything special about CCofBB. It was good but not extraordinary, oscar-hype was too much for it. Fight Club on the other hand was just over the top, it works for its certain philosophies only while the whole plot was unconvincing and the whole Tyler Durden being imaginary part looked like coming out of nowhere. Narrator took the whole fight on a certain level which we (there are others also) found unconvincing. It doesn’t mean that I hate this kind of particular cinema. Brad Anderson’s The Machinist is one of my favourite movies and I prefer it over Fight Club.
Seven just disappeared in the thin air after I watched it. I watched it with one of my friends. After doing all the machismo work in the practical classes, we were obviously tired and we both slept halfway in between the movie :D
I watched FC and 7 some 3 years back when I was naive (I still am) in terms of movies so probably this might be another reason for my disliking.
@ Rals: the pleasure is always mine. u generally show the light for others to follow.
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slight correction abt ur comment. i hv indeed written abt MMD with PM. wanted to write abt yash Chopra, but i realised that he has done more work with Shashi K., and in most of those movies, AB happned to b the main protagonist. .
abt hrishi-da with AB, well, honestly, i wanted to avoid too much of AB exposure on the write-up, most like magik says, from time to time.
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besides, iwanted some food for thought for the comments section as well, sincethe post was getting too lengthy.
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shyam benegal – naseer / om puri. YEAH. I MISSED THAT…
Mani Sir – Madhavan: honestly, didnt hv much idea
Shakti da – Sharmila: like Soderbergh – Clooney / Julia Roberts angle tht i hv mentinoed in the post, I guess Sharmila is an integral part of tht Shakti-da – Shammi/Rajesh K angle.
yeah, i think i ought to hv mentioned it nonetheless…
@ Magik: thanks bhai,
Sohail Khan – Salman Khan: LOL. i SO agree with Ashu.
Akshay Kumar – Vipul Shah: Well, in numbers, yes, they hv done a few, but the quality of movies, it leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, i thought Sunil/Dharmesh Darshan with Akki did some movies together as well, and quality was again the problem.
Suraj Barjatya – Salman Khan: well,i think it was more a necessity for Barjatyas for the sake of continuity of the PREM character that they stuck with Sallu. Besides, i dont think Sallu had much on offer in terms of variety, a necessary pre-qualification for being eligible for this article IMO, from Barjatyas. he became a very monotonous Prem by HSSH…
@ Ashu: ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH YOU OYE…
@ Shatik: KJ – SRK: Yeah, good suggestion, but very predictable combo, especially coming from the horse’s mouth that he wont ever conceive a movie without SRK, what with being a de-facto elder bro n all that FRATERNITY-BONDING…!!!
didnt include it for that very reason…
i was just kidding man …..
I somwhow feel its better if a director works with a new actor every time and vice versa. It brings out quality work as in a director has a certain way of imagination , he has a certain style, he cant completely exploit the actor.
Working with new people increases th efficiency, quality and the wow factor. (though sadly this doesnt work all the time)
@ Jahanpanah: sirjee, im sorry if u felt i was implying that u dont like Tim Burton just coz u dont care much for David Fincher. to each his own, as I had said earlier. im sure the two directors r quite different in their style and approach. personally, i liekd Seven as well as Fight Club. Didnt care much for Benjamin Button.
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i also like Machinist a lot, btw.
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on an aside, considering u watched Seven and Fc under ‘different’ circumstances, Iwud request u to give a fair (second) chance to them once again. Some movies d ogrow on us after repeat viewings. RLR, for example…
@ Satyendra!
Nice post! Really good.
I would like to add some gems from international cinema too.
Ingmar Bergman & Max Van Sydow (Liv Ullman is already mentioned by yayaver)
François Truffaut & Jean-Pierre Léaud (Famous Trilogy by Truffaut)
Also, WOODY ALLEN & …. WOODY ALLEN!! :P
Big list Satyen, anyway here goes.
India
AB-Prakash Mehra/Manmohan Desai/Yash Chopra/Hrishida/ Mukul Anand
Kamal-K.Balachander/Balu Mahendra/Bharatiraja. Singeetham Sreenivasa Rao( in the good ole days when it was not Kamal directing Kamal).
Aamir Khan-Aamir Khan.( Officially as well as unofficially).
Rajesh Khanna-Shakti Samanta/Hrishida
Sanjeev Kumar-Gulzar/ Hrishida
Amol Palekar-Basu Chatterjee
Naseer-Shyam Benegal/Govind Nihalani
Rajnikant-K. Balachander( in the days before he became superstar Rajnikanth).
Robert De Niro-Martin Scorcese
Al Pacino-Brian De Palma/Sidney Lumet
Christian Bale-Christopher Nolan
Leonardo Di Caprio-Martin Scorcese
Tom Hanks-Robert Zemeckis( Forrest Gump, Cast Away)/Steven Spielberg.
George Clooney-Coen Bros/ Steven Soderbergh
Johnny Depp-Tim Burton
James Stewart/Cary Grant-Alfred Hitchcock
John Wayne-John Ford
Henry Fonda-John Ford
Clint Eastwood-Sergio Leone
Shashi Kapoor-Shyam Benegal
Om Puri-Govind Nihalani
TLV Prasad – Mithun….they have done a lot of unforgettable movies together
ram gopal verma and urmila :P
Nassir hussain and asha parekh.
@ 32: thnx for the support. yeah, bergman & truffaut had some great collaborations.
@ 32 & Ratnakar: Woody Allen & Woody Allen and Aamir Khan with Aamir Khan… well, i dont think we can put the actor-director being one in this list, as they r not collaborating in the strictest sense with any other person.
had tht been the case, i wud put raj kapoor, guru dutt, and to some extent v shantaram in tht list above all else.
cassandra: yeah, RGV shud qualify for urmila, antara mali and best of all with NISHA KOTHARI.. LOL…
Nassir hussain and asha parekh… hmmm, interesting equation…lemme see…
jab pyar kisise hota hai
caravan
pyar ka mausam
phir wohi dil laya hoon
tesri manjil
baharon ke sapne
atually….
@ Ratnakar: WOW, was expecting an exhaustive list from u… seriously…
some of these r on my list, some of them i purposely left out, some of them i really didnt know (esp south..)
thanks a lot for the inputs…
typo at # 31: last word shoud b “actually”.
@ Satyen
My Aamir-Aamir thing was totally tongue in cheek, considering Aamir often ends up ghost directing,LOL.
Kamal and Singeetham together gave some fabulous movies, Raja Parvai, Pushpak, Apoorva Sahodaragal(Appu Raja), Michael Madana Kama Rajan.
Kamal and Bharatiraja combo had
16 Vayathanille, Oru Kaidhiyin Diary, Sigappu Rojakkal, Tik Tik Tik.
Interestingly all these movies were remade in Hindi
16 Vayathanille-Solva Sawan
Oru Kaidhiyin Diary-Aakhri Raasta
Sigappu Rojakkal-Red Rose
Tik Tik Tik-Karishma
And only Aakhir Rasta was a success, all others were flops.
Some other combos
Sridevi/Yash Chopra-Chandni, Lamhe.
Salman Khan-David Dhawan
Sanjay Dutt-Vinod Chopra( Munnabhai series, Parineeta, Mission Kashmir)
Sanjay Dutt-Mahesh Bhatt( Naam, Kabza, Sadak, Gumraah).
Madhuri Dixit-Indra Kumar( Dil, Beta, Raja). Actually Indra Kumar should be eternally grateful to Madhuri for making such turd movies a success.
Nana Patekar-Mehul Kumar, Another case of a mediocre director, being rescued by an actor’s sheer brillance( Tirangaa, Krantiveer).
Govinda-David Dhawan
Ajay Devgan-Raj Kumar Santoshi( Legend of Bhagat Singh, Lajja)
Sunny Deol-Rahul Rawail( they made 3 great movies Betaab, Arjun, Dacait before falling apart).
Sunny Deol-Raj Kumar Santoshi( Ghayal, Ghatak, Damini), one director who really knew how to bring the best out of Sunny, sadly he later chose the Anil Sharmas and Guddu Dhanoas.
@ Ratnakar: re: AK – AK, yeah, i had got the drift. thanks mainly to Mahesh Bhatt. LOL.
re: Kamalhasan associations, yeah i was aware of him having done some fab movies with specific directors, but cudnt talk abt it authoritatively, hence left it to u guys…
MB – Sanju: yeah, naam & kabza were fab, and sadak & gumraah r my guilty pleasures.
VVC – Sanju: only mision kashmir was “directed” by VVC, others were his production, hence i dont think it can qualify…
@ Ratnakar: w.r.t. ur examples of mehul – nana; indra kumar – madhuri, similarly, i guess the star charisma of salman khan pulled many a turd of david dhawan (im aware that it might open another can of worms, a la my article on salman, so im stating this with guarded disclaimer…)
Rahul Rawail / RK Santoshi – Sunny: yeah, great movies, unfortunately the ‘magik’ didnt continue. santoshi chose Ajay Devgan over Sunny after their fall-out during Bhagat Singh.
Rawail faded away into oblivion post-dacait.
sunny of course went on to give one turd after the other in company of some very pedestrian directors…
@ Ratnakar: combo of Anil Sharma with dharam/sunny is, IMO, a case-study in itself. he first made a joker out of dharam in movies like hukumat, farishtey, elan-e-jung, tehelka.
Then he took on to “barbaad karo” the career of sunny with hero: love story of a spy, ab tumhare hawale watan sathiyo and to some extent, apne. only Gadar managed to make serious money, and helped sunny. but in retrospect, it was quite a regressive way of making money, IMHO.
# 39: sorry, ab tumhare hawale didnt have sunny. my bad. it must hv come out in my zeal to deride anil sharma, so influenced am i with his mediocre filmmaking.
Well Jha a lot of jodi’s have been written so here are some more-
1.Priyadarshan- Mohan Lal
2.Sathyan Anthikkad- Jayaram
3.Saran- Ajith
4.K.S.Ravikumar- Rajnikant/Kamal Haasan/Sarat Kumar
5.Manirathnam- Madhavan/Abhishek Bachchan
6.Yash Chopra/Adi Chopra- SRK
7.Joshy- Mammootty
8.Swapan Saha/Haranath Chakraborty/Rituparno Ghosh- Prasenjit Chatterjee
9.David Dhawan- Salman Khan/Sanjay Dutt
10.Mohit Suri- Emran Hashmi
will be back with more.
Nana Patekar-Partho Ghosh( have given watchable stuff Agnisakshi, Yugpurush, Ghulam E Mustafa).
Some other interesting combos
Al Pacino-Michael Mann( Heat, The Insider).
Antonio Banderas-Robert Rodriguez( Desperado trilogy, Spy Kids series).
Tom Cruise-Cameron Crowe(Jerry McGuire, Vanilla Sky).
Comming to Tarantino, he had his favorites Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth all of whom appeared in Pulp Fiction as well as Reservoir Dogs.
Here are some more-
Abbas Mastan- Bobby Deol/Akshaye Khanna
Mukul Anand- Danny Denzongpa
Johny Antony- Dileep
S.P.Muthuraman- Rajnikant
Suresh Krishna- Rajnkinant/Kamal Haasan
K.Vishwanath- Kamal Haasan
@ Sethu: not much idea bt south-combos. Mohit Suri – Emran Hashmi is worth being included here, IMO.
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Rituparno – Prosenjit: well, its a pretty dicey combo really. forthe five films that they hv worked together, they hvnt worked in ten movies that rituparno has made during the same time.
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i think rituparno chooses his actors very methodicaly, and doesnt take anyone just for the sake for the relationship they share. u will find, all prasenjit movies with rituparno have him in an integral part, not just a walk-away role, except mayb in unishe april.
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personally, i watch all rituparno movies, as i like him a lot.
@ Ratnakar: partho ghosh – nana is an interesting combo. yeah, they were good. tarantino didnt continue with a spefic actor in most of movies, except Samuel Jackson. with uma of course, he considered her more of his muse.
@ Sethu; k vishwanath – kamal: definitely worth mentioning, IMO. great team. memorable movies.
mukul anand – danny: WOW. not many wud recollect that off-hand. but yeah, absolutely..
Priyadarshan- Paresh Rawal,Asrani,Rajpal yadav,
)
Asrani, Manoj Joshi,Akshay Kumar
Prakash Jha- Ajay Devgan
Suraj Barjatya- Alok Nath
S.Ramanathan- Amitabh Bachchan
Vikram Bhatt- Aftab Shivdasani (
hahahaha. most of ur suggestions were great, aftab bit was the icing on the cake.LOL.
* priyan walks around with his coterie these days. no comments.
* suraj – alok nath: they dont seem to be important enough, IMO
* Prakash Jha – Ajay Devgan: really worthy combo. how im cursing for missing it in the article…!
S Ramanathan – AB: How many? worth it?
Talking of regional cinema, the director actor duo of Manoj Punj and Gurdaas Mann made some really good Punjabi movies, “Shaheed Buta Singh, “Warish Shah”, “Des Hoyeya Pardes”…..unfortunately the early demise of Manoj Punj ended this great collaboration.
Jha- yes Aftab & Vikram Bhatt complement each other well
S.Ramanathan- directed AB in his first solo hit- Bombay to Goa & also directed him in Mahaan & Zamanat ( yet to be released). he also produced some of his movies like Geraftaar & Raaste Ka Pathar.
here are some more
Subash Ghai- Anil Kapoor/Jackie Shroff
B.Subash- Mithun Chakraborty
RGV- Amitabh Bachchan
Rakesh Roshan- SRK ( King Uncle,Karan Arjun,Koyla,Krazzy 4)
Mansoor Khan- Aamir Khan
rajat kapoor – ranvir and vinay.
cassandra: rajat kapoor – ranvir/vinay: not many movies, though their association is worth the salt. they r a great team, but rajat hasnt directed enough movies, sadly…
mixed doubles & mithya rthe only two movies i cn think of…and vinay didnt hv a great role in either
@ Sethu: yes, subbu with anil/jackie is good…
rakesh roshan with SRK somehow doesnt impress me. koyla was ad bad as it gets. king uncle was too early to be called an SRK movie, Karan Arjun was good (worthy, IMO), and Krazzy 4 was just a filler.
Mansoor – Aamir have only two movies: JJWS & AHAT…
RGV & AB are definitely creating a niche for themselves. eagerly waiting for Rann..
from malayalam, these are my favs:
Mohanlal – Padmarajan
Mammootty- Joshi
Padmarajan, for me, the greatest director ever!
@ murali: hmm, i was sure mohan lal & mammootty wud hv a good combo, what with so many of their movies and limited number of good directors… thanks for the update..
Satyendra @52 don’t know how i counted bheja fry also in the list .. realized it later after posting the comment
Anyways.. these three look like a promising trio 
What about Guru Dutt and Johny Walker..
@ cassandra: rajat kapoor was asociated with bheja fry in the creative-input dept. it ROCKED big time for me. im ready to watch any movie with the three together, whether or not anyone of them is the director…
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Guru Dutt – Johny Walker: hmm, now thts an interesting combo. great artistes, both. guru dutt had a knack with his long-time friend johny
well-known trivia: johny walker had come to Guru Dutt for screen-test for Mr. & Mrs. 55, on the insistence of Balraj Sahni. having come as badruddin Qazi, he gave such an astoundingly true screen-test of a drunkard that Guru Dutt monickered him as Johny Walker (scotch).
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Guru had him in all his movies till the time of his death.
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it deserves another article, their association. thanks Cassandra for bringing it up…
yeah they were best buddies and looked good together. i have even heard that guru dutt used to modify scripts to add roles for johnny walker.. now that’s called frn’ship
@ cassandra: guru dutt was always known to stand by his frnds… dev anand, abrar alvi, johny walker, rehman, raj khosla.
somehow he got disillusioned with all this materialstic, but never left the side of his frnds, and johny was a core member of his inner circle…
what abt anurag-kay kay? That is one combo which can never go wrong! Anurag is the only one who can utilised kay kay to the fullest!
well BD, i knew sometime or the other, this combo is going to be put up. its a dynamite combo allright. the problem is, its not been exposed to the general masses in strictest sense.
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Black Friday & Gulaal are the two movies one can watch AK-KK combo. Dev D didnt hv him, and Paanch… dukhti rag pe khud hi haath rakh diya yaar…
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BF was watched more on pirated CD, than in theatres. Gulaal, as much as I liked it, didnt hv a very successful run at the BO. strictly speaking, not many ppl know of their combo because its been too few and too far between…
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personally, i think its the most dynamic duo under this article’s scope…
Abbas-Mustan & Johnny Lever :P :P :P
Another super combo is Priyadarshan and Mohanlal in Malayalam Cinema.
@ sandeep: yeah, i was waiting for someone to givethis combo of Priyan-Mohan Lal. Unlike Priyan’s coterie these days in Hindi cinema, with his usual suspects filling up the screen one after the other, the old priyan malayalam movies had that ‘magik’, esp with Mohan Lal.
Exhaustive, educative and well researched post & comment section!
My fav’s duos are all mentioned i/c Ray-Soumitra.
Some pair-ups have formed cult successes David Lynch- Jack Nance.
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Unique to Bengali cinema the collaboration of technicians calling Agradoot with Uttam Kumar gave us immortal hits !
Cheers!
~uh~
Jha- Though SRK & Rakesh Roshan rocked mainly in Karan Arjun, Koyla was not really the flop that people think it is.It made a lot of money in the South & in B&C centres in the south.Its also a big draw in the re-runs on T.V.Yes King Uncle was fairly early in SRK’s career.I mentioned Krazzy 4 for the reason that SRK agreed to do the song only due to the relationship with Rakesh Roshan.
Sibi Malayil is a director who has created magic with both Mohanlal & Mamootty in numerous movies.Of course I would rate the jodi with Mohanalal to be slightly better as far as Sibi Malayil is concerned.
Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s combination with Mammootty in 3 movies has also been memorable.also memorable is T.V.Chandran’s jodi with Mammootty.
romy rolly and zafar khan
@Papaji — that should be Ranjit Rolly ;-)
Shyam Benegal / Rajit Kapur
Alfred Hitchcock / Cary Grant
Bergman- Max Von Sydow
Wadja – Zbigniew Cybulski (enigmatic actor)
Kar Wai – Tony Leung
KB – Kamal/Rajni
Ismail/Merchant- Sashi Kapoor
Luc Besson- Jean Reno
mahesh bhatt – avatar gill :-)
Kevin Smith- Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes (Silent Bob and Jay)
Christopher Nolan- Micheal Caine and Christian Bale (more to come)
Rajeev Rai- Naseeruddin Shah
Dharmputra – what a gem!
@ uh: thx, yeah am aware of the agradoot – uttam kumar combo, but i guess the quality of those movies was more run-of-the-mill, although they were extremely successful, coz maybe suchitra sen was also a part of those ventures,and utam-suchitra rocked big time.
@ Sethu: yeah, guess u r right abr crazzy 4 & Koyla logic. butto tell u honestly, the combo somehow doesnt evoke that feeling in me. maybe coz now rakesh roshan prefers working with only his son, and the SRK angle has gone out of ppl’s perception…
@ papaji & stone: how cud i forget it! but remember, there is a fallout brewing lately, and zafar khan has now sided with KJo.
Stone @ 77: shyam benegal with rajit kapoor: hmmm, suraj ka saatwaan ghoda… mammo…sardari begum…zubeidaa…the making of mahatma…samar…netaji…
thanks stone, its really a great input….
@ Ram V: yes, yes, yes, but some of them have beencovered in earlier posts.
@ Sudip: absolutely…
@ jahanpanah: rajiv rai – naseer sounds good…
Christopher Nolan – Micheal Caine / Christian Bale: not much idea, honestly
Here are a few more..Gulshan Kumar – Kishan Kumar,Kamal R Khan – Kamal R Khan :D :D :D
Amitabh-Hrishikesh Mukherjee have done some good films together.
Ajay Devgan-Prakash Jha
Subhash Ghai-Jackie Shroff-Anil Kapoor.Regarding the quality of movies,he he,but they were big hits.
Indra Kumar-Madhuri Dixit(Dil,Beta,Raja)
Amitabh-Mukul Anand
Shahrukh-Karan Johar
Vijay Anand/Raj Khosla – Dev Anand
Mahesh Bhatt – Anupam Kher
Bimal Roy – Dilip Kumar
B R Chopra – Ashok Kumar
Raj Khosla – Sadhna
Raj Khosla – Sunil Dutt
Ramesh Sippy – Amitabh
another one Hrishikesh Mukherjee – Dharmendra (Satykam, Chupke-Chupke, Anupama)
@ Anindya: yeah, Hrishi-da – AB has been acknowledged by me on the comments of this post as well as the superb article by Rk. how i missed it n how im repenting…!
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Prakash Jha – AD; Subbu – Jackie / Anil; Mukul Anand – AB; KJo – SRK have all been acknowledged, to varying degrees. ditto for Indra Kumar – Madhuri.
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uh had suggested abt Agradoot – Uttam Kumar, which i think was quite a worthy mention. Similarly, Stone suggested abt Shyam Benegal – Rajit Kapoor. IMO, these r the combos which are virtually unsung, but pack a lot of punch..
@ b desai: Ramesh Sippy – AB had sholay, shaan, shakti & akayla. yeah, they can be called a good combo, but somehow,when it comes to AB: MMD, PM, Hrishi-da score higher. obviously, with a star like AB, anyone who is attached gets noticed.
@ b desai: raj khosla did the suspense trilogy with sadhna, but sunil dutt? i think he did more movies with dev anand & manoj kumar, even vinod khanna, for that matter…
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bimal roy – dilip kumar had only devdas, madhumati & yahudi. but they didnt work after that… sad, it cud hv been a dynamite combo, but bimal da expired soon.
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Mahesh Bhatt – Anupam Kher has been touched before
@ b desai: hrishi-da with Dharmendra gave some memorable movies. yes…
SJ @89,
Yes Raj Khosla gave 3 movies with Sunil Dutt (Mera Saya, Chirag and Nehle pe Dehla). I agree with you that he gave more movies with Manoj Kumar and Vinod Khanna.
kamal hassan-Santhana Bharathi (Guna, mahanadhi)
Nagesh-K.Balachander
Rajinikanth-Mahendran
Sridevi-K.Balachander
Ganakaraj-Maniratnam (Nayakan,Agni natchatram,Roja)
Aravind swamy-Maniratnam (Thalapathi, Roja, Bombay,Alaipayuthea)
Shyam benegal-Anant Nag
Gurudutt-Waheeda rehman
Kamalini mukherjee- Shekar Kemula
Rakesh omprakash mehra-Waheeda rehman
Kamal – Singetham Sreenivas Rao
Aravind Swamy/Madhavan – Maniratnam
and the craziest or stupidest of them all:
Judd Apatow- Seth Rogen
Mahesh Bhatt – Paresh Rawal (Naam, Kabza, Sir, Tamanna)
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@ Prasanna: ROM – Waheeda: yes, the beginning of a good combo (many more to come, hopefully)..
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Shyam Benegal – Anant Nag doesnt pack a punch, IMO
@ bdesai: hmmm, interesting observation abt Bhatt – Paresh Rawal.
@ bala: Judd Apatow- Seth Rogen: not really aware of them. sorry. can u throw some more light plz…
Nobody mentioned the most spectacular of’em all
Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell (Hail to the king). :D
@ Jahanpanah: yeah, i guess it got missed out from everyone’s list. was it becoz the horrr genre doesnt command that ‘respect’, as written a long time back by Suparn Verma as well…?
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btw, its the 100th comment, so i wanted myself to be the torch-bearer. thanks everyone…
Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski.
@Satyendraji
I think you are right. Horror flicks are still in that B category genre particularly the movies like Evil Dead series. Apart from that Bruce Campbell had cameoes in the Spiderman movies too. Bruce Campbell has got some dedicated fans and is a cult personality.
Rajesh Khanna – Asit Sen
Rajesh Khanna – Yash Chopra
Rajesh Khanna – Raj Khosla
Rajesh Khanna – Manmohan Desai
Rajesh Khanna – J.Om Prakash
@ HM: request you to kindly give us the names or at least the no. of movies of the combos u hv mentioned. we might hv missed it in this discussion by now.
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btw, raj khosla was discussed with other actors (mainly sadhana)
@ yayaver: wow, thats a really unheard-of combo in the mainstream forum. great suggestion.
Yes Satyendra ji…..here it is
Rajesh Khanna – Asit Sen – Khamoshi and Safar
Rajesh Khanna – Yash Chopra – Ittefaq and Daag
Rajesh Khanna – Raj Khosla – Do Raste and Prem Kahani
Rajesh Khanna – Manmohan Desai – Sachcha Jhoota and Roti
Rajesh Khanna – J.Om Prakash – Aap Ki Kasam and Aakhir Kyhon
@ HM: hmmm, two movies each. all great ones (except Prem Kahani, maybe). i hd not expected the MMD-RK combo. thanks…
Satyendra ji,
here is another gem of a combination..
Rajesh Khanna – Chetan Anand – Aakhri Khat and Kudrat….
HM ji: aap toh ekdum se RK ke fan lagte hain, sahi hai ji…keep them coming
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lagta jai kaka ke baare mein ek article karna hi padega….
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btw, any more combo apart from kaka?
Satyendra Ji,
Sahi Pehchana….100% kaka fan….did i make it too obvious? ha ha ha…
Article Zaroor keejiye….
Any more Combination? Apart from Kaka? Sochna padega…zara time deejiye…