In today’s weekend blog, I am writing about some unknown facts of a Bollywood film released way back in 1977. This film was not a classic film by any standard whether it was story, screenplay, technical brilliance and logic but is considered as the best Hindi Masala film ever made. It had a great music, comedy, good performances by all the stars etc. The film was Produced and directed by Manmohan Desai, and name of the film was ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’.
The main star cast of the film was Vinod Khanna (Amar), Rishi Kapoor (Akbar) Amitabh Bachchan (Anthony) with Shabana Azmi, Neetu Singh and Praveen Babi as their love interest, supported by Pran, Nirupa Roy, Ranjeet and Jeevan. Lyrics written by Anand Bakshi and music by Laxmikant Pyarelal.
These are some unknown facts about this film;
1 It has been said that although the shooting film was over by the middle of 1975 and was being readied for end 1975 release, but it was not to be. The film could not be released because that time Emergency was declared in the country, and Manmohan Desai was afraid that censor will apply unnecessary cuts in the film and ruin it. So it was released in 1977 after the emergency was lifted. If it would have been released in 1975 then it would have been competing with Sholay & Deewar
2 For this film Amitabh Bachchan got his first best actor award in the Filmfare awards. Although it was not his first Filmfare trophy, earlier he had won supporting actor awards for Anand (1971) and Namak Haram (1973).
3 Although in those days overseas market for Hindi films was not developed properly, but this film when released in whichever country was declared a hit and specially in area of West Indies it was declared a big super hit.
4 In the film’s planning stage the role of Police Inspector Amar was offered to Dharmendra, but due to his busy schedule he refused the offer. Then Manmohan Desai offered the same role to Vinod Khanna, he accepted the role but he asked Manmohanji who is the heroine opposite me, but he was told by Manmohanji that in this film he has not conceived any role for heroine opposite the character of inspector. But Vinod insisted the director and eventually Manmohanji agreed to get the story redrafted by inserting the role for one more heroine opposite Vinod Khanna and that role was played by Shabana Azmi.
5 Friends, if you have seen the film then you will remember the Amitabh’s drunken scene in front of mirror. The fact is the day when the scene was to be shot, Manmohan Desai was busy shooting for his some other film on a adjoining set in the same studio. He requested Amitabh to do the scene without him, and requested that time writer Kadar Khan to supervise the scene. Amitabh shot this scene with no guidance of the director, and he performed so well in the first instance and Kadar Khan okayed it.
6 Although Manmohan Desai directed his first film Chhalia in 1960, but he became producer with this film. Earlier he had directed many films for his elder brother Subhash Desai who was a producer, and even for outside producers. His decision to become producer with this film was justified, as the film was really a super duper hit and he earned huge profits from this film.
7 Friends if you have watched this film, you will not forget the colourful and gaudy costumes worn by Rishi Kapoor for the role of qawal. Manmohanji never asked any dress designer to design the costume for this character instead to give the authenticity to character all the cloth worn by Rishi Kapoor was purchased from roadside stalls located on the footpaths of Linking Road in Bandra area of Bombay.
8 Amitabh was introduced to Manmohan Desai by writer Duo Salim Javed, when they took him to the shooting of film Roti starring Rajesh Khanna and directed by Manmohanji. After the introductions, Salim asked Manmohanji to consider Amitabh for some role in his future films, you know what Manmohanji replied, he said after looking at Amitabh ‘ this time I can offer him only chicken roll’ because Amitabh was really very thin in those days. This incident happened sometime in 1972. But after Amar Akbar Anthony Manmohanji made many films with Amitabh, and their team was considered to be super hit team.
9 Although Dharmendra refused this film due to his busy schedule , at that time industry people thought there will be crack in their friendship . But nothing of this sort happened, and when Manmohanji requested Dharmendra to give the Muhurat clap of this film, despite his busy schedule Dharmendra made it a point reach on time to give clap.
10 Although this film was a super hit film box office wise, but content and logic was this was a ordinary film. Friends, do you remember the scene where three main character Amar, Akbar & Anthony are donating blood simultaneously and blood from them is being transfused to Nirupa Roy, with three blood pipes going into one and blood being entering her body. Senseless scene, no logic whatsoever. There were many scenes like this in this film and many more films directed by him.
After this film Manmohan Desai became master of formula or masala films. Even today if some one makes this type of masala films, he is immediately compared to Manmohan Desai and judged accordingly. After him one director who imitated his arts of making masala films and became famous is David Dhawan. His teaming with Govinda is always compared to the team of Amitabh and Manmohan Desai.
I hope you enjoyed reading this fact about a film , which has become a cult film in the masala film category.
Waiting for your comments/views/feed backs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
17th Jan 2020
In today’s weekend blog, I am writing about some unknown facts of a Bollywood film released way back in 1977. This film was not a classic film by any standard whether it was story, screenplay, technical brilliance and logic but is considered as the best Hindi Masala film ever made. It had a great music, comedy, good performances by all the stars etc. The film was Produced and directed by Manmohan Desai, and name of the film was ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’.
The main star cast of the film was Vinod Khanna (Amar), Rishi Kapoor (Akbar) Amitabh Bachchan (Anthony) with Shabana Azmi, Neetu Singh and Praveen Babi as their love interest, supported by Pran, Nirupa Roy, Ranjeet and Jeevan. Lyrics written by Anand Bakshi and music by Laxmikant Pyarelal.
These are some unknown facts about this film;
1 It has been said that although the shooting film was over by the middle of 1975 and was being readied for end 1975 release, but it was not to be. The film could not be released because that time Emergency was declared in the country, and Manmohan Desai was afraid that censor will apply unnecessary cuts in the film and ruin it. So it was released in 1977 after the emergency was lifted. If it would have been released in 1975 then it would have been competing with Sholay & Deewar
2 For this film Amitabh Bachchan got his first best actor award in the Filmfare awards. Although it was not his first Filmfare trophy, earlier he had won supporting actor awards for Anand (1971) and Namak Haram (1973).
3 Although in those days overseas market for Hindi films was not developed properly, but this film when released in whichever country was declared a hit and specially in area of West Indies it was declared a big super hit.
4 In the film’s planning stage the role of Police Inspector Amar was offered to Dharmendra, but due to his busy schedule he refused the offer. Then Manmohan Desai offered the same role to Vinod Khanna, he accepted the role but he asked Manmohanji who is the heroine opposite me, but he was told by Manmohanji that in this film he has not conceived any role for heroine opposite the character of inspector. But Vinod insisted the director and eventually Manmohanji agreed to get the story redrafted by inserting the role for one more heroine opposite Vinod Khanna and that role was played by Shabana Azmi.
5 Friends, if you have seen the film then you will remember the Amitabh’s drunken scene in front of mirror. The fact is the day when the scene was to be shot, Manmohan Desai was busy shooting for his some other film on a adjoining set in the same studio. He requested Amitabh to do the scene without him, and requested that time writer Kadar Khan to supervise the scene. Amitabh shot this scene with no guidance of the director, and he performed so well in the first instance and Kadar Khan okayed it.
6 Although Manmohan Desai directed his first film Chhalia in 1960, but he became producer with this film. Earlier he had directed many films for his elder brother Subhash Desai who was a producer, and even for outside producers. His decision to become producer with this film was justified, as the film was really a super duper hit and he earned huge profits from this film.
7 Friends if you have watched this film, you will not forget the colourful and gaudy costumes worn by Rishi Kapoor for the role of qawal. Manmohanji never asked any dress designer to design the costume for this character instead to give the authenticity to character all the cloth worn by Rishi Kapoor was purchased from roadside stalls located on the footpaths of Linking Road in Bandra area of Bombay.
8 Amitabh was introduced to Manmohan Desai by writer Duo Salim Javed, when they took him to the shooting of film Roti starring Rajesh Khanna and directed by Manmohanji. After the introductions, Salim asked Manmohanji to consider Amitabh for some role in his future films, you know what Manmohanji replied, he said after looking at Amitabh ‘ this time I can offer him only chicken roll’ because Amitabh was really very thin in those days. This incident happened sometime in 1972. But after Amar Akbar Anthony Manmohanji made many films with Amitabh, and their team was considered to be super hit team.
9 Although Dharmendra refused this film due to his busy schedule , at that time industry people thought there will be crack in their friendship . But nothing of this sort happened, and when Manmohanji requested Dharmendra to give the Muhurat clap of this film, despite his busy schedule Dharmendra made it a point reach on time to give clap.
10 Although this film was a super hit film box office wise, but content and logic was this was a ordinary film. Friends, do you remember the scene where three main character Amar, Akbar & Anthony are donating blood simultaneously and blood from them is being transfused to Nirupa Roy, with three blood pipes going into one and blood being entering her body. Senseless scene, no logic whatsoever. There were many scenes like this in this film and many more films directed by him.
After this film Manmohan Desai became master of formula or masala films. Even today if some one makes this type of masala films, he is immediately compared to Manmohan Desai and judged accordingly. After him one director who imitated his arts of making masala films and became famous is David Dhawan. His teaming with Govinda is always compared to the team of Amitabh and Manmohan Desai.
I hope you enjoyed reading this fact about a film , which has become a cult film in the masala film category.
Waiting for your comments/views/feed backs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
17th Jan 2020
R. N. Mungale.
I remember the film. I saw it & liked it.