India also needs to make films with veteran actors in lead roles!
After reading Anurag’s post where he has mentioned that he is searching for an actor who could play Gabbar Singh in No Smoking. An actor who should be between 50 and 60 years old. Danny was the most natural choice with obvious reasons. and as soon as Danny’s name flashed in mind, I was filled with a thirst to see this amazing actor in a meaningful role. I saw him last in Ab Tumhare hawale Vatan Sathiyon and in a TV serial Ajnabi.
Danny is an actor who should be given challenging films. We dont make films where veterans get meaningful roles. One good thing can happen if Danny is active again that Anurag can work on an idea where he uses veteran actors as the main protagonists. Surely AB has been very active post Mohabbatein and is getting roles but how many of them are capable to extract his true potential remains a question.
Even 70s saw some good films made with veteran actors in lead roles. Do Jasoos was made with Raj Kapoor and Rajendra Kumar in lead roles. Raj Kapoor played lead roles in three other movies, Abdullah, Gopichand jasoos and Vakil Babu. and then a gem by Basu Chatterjee – Shaukin having Ashok Kumar, Utpal Datt and A.K.Hangal in lead roles. What an interesting and entertaining film. it was.
Yes we still see Maine Gandhi ko nahin mara type films with Anupam Kher as main protagonist. But on an average we dont make films which can do justice with the capability of our good actors. They are forced to play elder relatives of young heros and heroines and sometimes they are asked to dance on hopeless remix type songs. We saw Dilip Kumar 10 years ago in Qila and after that he is living a retired life. Subhash Ghai says that he needs a wonderful script to bring DK back in to the action so that story does justice with his capability. We don’t see Vinod Khanna, Dharmedra in meaningful roles where they can do something meaningful. It’s not easy to forget Vinod Khanna’s Gulzar’s films. Dharmendra is unbeaten in comedies and no doubt if somebody makes a film like Shaukin with Dharmendra, AB and Vinod Khanna then it will set screen on fire. They need roles and space to expolit their acting skills. Saudagar was and still is watchable for the presence of Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar in the film.
This is good that Vidu Vinod Chopra is planning Move 5 where he needs a veteran actor. few more filmmakers should explore this area more.
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
DVD’s Of Paanch & Black Friday….considering tht these movies might never have a theatrical release …how bout giving them a DVD release…so we can watch some worhtwile stuff rather than the tripe tht is bieng passed off as cinema….im sure anurag can do atleast tht?
you forgot the classic film Khaata Meetha. i second what you have said.
Hi,
With the discussion having names like Gabbar and Danny, one can’t help wondering that Danny Denzongpa was the original choice for Gabbar!
You are right when you say Bollywood doesn’t do justice to actors beyond certain age (Mr Bachchan being an exception). Or else how would you explain Vinod Khanna reduced to that stereotypical rich and angry father who is pyaar ka dushman in Deewanapan, or for that matter superstar Rajesh Khanna in Kya Dil Ne Kaha and a non-starrer like Pyaar Zindagi Hai! Come on, these people deserve more and do justice to their talent.
HG:
yes I missed Khatta Meetha to mention. Rather Aap ke Deewane also where Ashok Kumar and Pran again played the roles bigger than the younger Rakesh Roshan, Rishi Kapur and Tina Munim.
Illuzon:
Its true that Danny was the original choice for playing the role of Gabbar Singh but he was too busy. he had atleast 12-13 releases during 1974-75 when Sholay was under making. I think it was Feroz Khan’s Dharmatma for which he declined Sholay. Later Salim-Zaved suggested name of Amjad Khan to Ramesh Sippy. And after one week of shooting They had asked Ramesh Sippy to replace Amjad Khan if he does not find him suitable because they were finding his voice too feeble and weak for the role of Gabbar Singh. Amjad Khan never could forget this incidence and never worked with Salim Javed again.
Anupama Chopra(wife of Vidhu Vinod Chopra)has written a book on “making of Sholay”. Amitabh Bachchan had asked Dharmendra to say a positive word to Ramesh Sippy about him so that he gets the role of Jai. He even wanted to play the role of Gabbar Singh after reading the script. Dharmendra was eager to play the role of Thakur Baldev Singh but Hema Malini’s role against Veeru in film stopped him to think on this angle as Ramesh Sippy had said that then Sanjiv Kumar will have to play the role of Veeru.
He he…And Jeetendra was also one of the one-sided lovers of the Dream Girl.
Those were the times when actress-singer Sulakshana Pandit had expressed her feelings for Sanjeev Kumar but Hari bhai seemed to be besotted by the Iyengar beauty. Sulakshna kept on waiting for his reciprocation but no luck. What a lissome beauty she was. Unki kahaani bahut painful hai.Currently, living as a recluse and has no steady income.
It would be good to see the older actors in meaningful roles, AB has taken the lead here and showed ppl that even at the age of 60 plus he can carry a movie on his shoulders.
Problem is directors can spoil the character’s image – yes Dharam ji is good at comedy but making him into a drunk chasing a 20 something girl isnt comedy.
If we look at hollywood and look at roles that Al Pacino or even Jack Nicolson are noew doing we can see how our industry also needs to move fwd. And it is doing, slowly but surely we are seeing the older stars get promising roles with meaning and not just parents in the backround.
Incidently Sulakhsna Pandit is elder sister of actress Vijeyta Pandit(Love Story fame) who is wife of music composer and singer Adesh Srivastava. Sulakshna is also elder sister of now separated music composers Jatin and Lalit.
if these are not rumour
then it is said that Not only Sulakshna Pandit but Asha Parekh also did wait for Aamir Khan’s uncle Nasir Khan and Nanda did wait for late ManMohan Desai.
Talking of Asha Parekh, i’ve recently seen a TV serial that she made, it was rather good. It’s good to see taht these women are still contributing to the industry
Nanda waited for Manmohan Desai and later on married him as well. Unfortunately, after few months of her marriage, Mr Desai passed away. There was something bizzare about the sirens of the 60s. None of them had a happy personal life.
Morgan Freeman is a good role model for kaka alias Rajesh khanna to base his future career on. Dear mr khanna- pl check out his movies – maybe twinkle or akshay can help get the dvds – and pick and choose some of his roles to indianise or kaka-ise .these will suit you best today and will return you in the minds of the 14 year olds who watch movies and ‘make stars’ as a ‘cool dude’! your old emotional territory has been usurped by amit in baghban,black etc so the old man who weeps formula is out! play some action roles with nana patekar style dialogues ,man!
I strongly feel sholay remake the thakurs is well suited to rajesh khanna only.
Manohar:
Rajesh Khanna as Thakur in Sholay? Did he ever play any role which can defend his selection in such role? Thakur’s role is most serius one. Even Jai can be humorous but Thakur is damn serius and two occasions he laughs for social purpose. One when a colleague Inspector(Jairaj)talk abt gifts Thakur is carrying to his family and second when Unmarried Radha(Jaya) throws gulal on him while he is going in tonga to her house.
Rajesh Khanna never played such role where he should look calm in appearance but he should emote his power and strength through every gesture and body language. Rajesh Khasnna has done some wonderfull films where its difficult to replace him but Thakur’s role is not Rajesh Khanna’s cup of tea.
Plz somebody send me address of Subhash Ghai. I want to send him my story and script.
it’s tom@blowmeuptom.com