One Man’s No Is Another’s Jai Ho!
Yes this post is post Oscarmania and much awaited celebration of Indian talent therein! And it is a post that celebrates the unknown, the mysterious, the chance in the high stake world of movies!One twist of fate and the whole scenario changes! And when one looks with hindsight at these twists,there seems no real cut and dried explanation except that destiny beckoned the person for greatness—whether justified or not!
A R Rahman is supposed to have composed Jai Ho for Subhash Ghai’s Yuvraaj..But Ghai Saab for reasons best known to him did not take it..What would have been the consequences if Jai Ho was part of Yuvraaj’s score!..But it was not meant to be..For ,that Invisible Force had written the screenplay otherwise so as to give A R Rahman his overdue worldwide recognition!
Subhash Ghai himself is a case in point..He wanted to be an actor/star..But fate willed otherwise..Had he been a star Hindi Cinema would have been deprived of one of the directors of his time with such fine commercial sensibilities.
So is the classic case of one and only Amitabh Bachchan..Seven big stars of the industry at that time refused to be part of Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer..And Salim-Javed is supposed to have recommended AB’s name..And rest as they say is history..Zoya Akhtar mentions this episode in her Luck By Chance..She also mentions about Shahrukh Khan’s luck of getting Darr and Baazigar..Darr’s role is said to have been refused by Aamir Khan!
Similarly Shatrughan Sinha refused to be part of Deewar and the role fell into the lap of Amitabh Bachchan.
Salim-Javed duo is supposed to have taken their script Sholay to Manmohan Desai first..He refused ..One can now just fantasise what Sholay would have been sans Ramesh Sippy!..And whether Gabbar Singh’s role would have been immortalised if Danny Denzongappa had agreed to be part of Sholay instead of Feroze Khan’s Dharmatma!
Shammi Kapoor went on record thanking his luck and Dev Anand for refusing Tumsa Nahin Dekha and Teesri Manzil..Infact Dev Saheb is said to have left Teesri Manzil after shooting for one schedule..He supposedly did not like the script!
There are incidents and examples galore that somehow make you believe the role of Invisible Hand in making or breaking the career of actors in our film industry..These are few often-heard and quoted cases..I am sure you must have your favorite antecedents..Apart from these stars have you come across instances where any director got a movie per chance, particularly where it was refused by some known name–and that one twist of fate led to his reaching the heights in his career..
One man’s poison may be another’s nectar but one thing is for sure in film industsry..No doubt you can’t compete with destiny’s child but you can’t leave all that to fate also without being fully prepared..A tide may lift all boats but only those can sail on, that have not been resting and hence rusting!Every Dog can’t have its day!To become a millionaire you also have to slug it out–slum or no slum– From Jaye Hey to Jai Ho is long way to go!
Tags: a r rahman, aamir khan, Amitabh Bachchan, darr, deewar, Luck By Chance, Manmohan Desai, ramesh sippy, shatrughan sinha, sholay, Slumdog Millionaire, SRK, subhash ghai, Teesri Manzil, Zanjeer
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
Krysh,
when Richard Attenborough was approached to direct GANDHI it was only because other well-known directors like David McLean had already refused.
That’s an example not from Hindi film industry, but still connected to India (as is SLUMDOG).
What really blew me away, when I read Attenboroughs’ autobiography “In Search of Gandhi” was that first of all it took Attenboroughs 20 years, from 1962 to 1982, to raise the funds to shoot GANDHI, although he was already a very well-known actor, producer and later director, but also that when he was approached in 1962 to direct GANDHI he had never directed a single film in his life!
In 1983 GANDHI won 8 Oscars (as did SLUMDOG) incl. Best Film, Best Director, Best Lead Actor, Best Cinematography and Best Script.
Manjit Singh won the BEST ACTOR critics FILMFARE AWARD for OYE LUCKY OYE !!!
GK
Liked your write-up! Made for interesting reading! Thanks!