On this weekend, I am writing about few films of Bollywood where the character played by certain actor was appreciated so much that those particular performance ended as becoming classic and cult performances in the Bollywood. But the films I am mentioning below are the films, where the actor who performed the particular character was not the first choice of director, and he/she got the role after the first choice actor refused the role, but that particular role got the actor so much acclaim that you start thinking that this role was meant for this actor only.
1 Pyasa : The way Guru Dutt acted in the role of a poet, who is rejected by the society when alive, and when he is presumed dead the fame comes his way. This role established Guru Dutt as great actor, before this he was acting in light romantic film. Although the film was produced and directed by Guru Dutt himself, he had offered this role to Dilip Kumar first who agreed to play this role but at the last minute on the first day of shooting he refused, that is when Guru Dutt stepped into the poet’s role, and rest is history.
2 Sangam : It was produced & directed by Raj Kapoor, it was triangular love story featuring Vyjayantimala, Raj Kapoor and Rajendra Kumar. You know Raj Kapoor had offered the role which was played by Rajendra Kumar, first to Dilip Kumar, who refused this role because Raj Kapoor was the director of the film thinking director will not do complete justice to that role. He was ready to work provided Raj Kapoor step down as director, which was not possible, hence Rajendra Kumar stepped in, and he got boost to his acting career.
3 Anand : Direected by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who had a great ongoing friendship with Raj Kapoor, and he wrote the story keeping in mind that the lead role will be enacted by Raj Kapoor and for Doctor’s role he had envisaged Dilip Kumar. But for certain reason he could not start the film and the film was shelved. In 1970 he revived the film, he first wanted to cast Kishore Kumar or Shashi Kapoor in the title role, then one day he narrated the script to Rajesh Khanna, and Rajesh Khanna after hearing the script said yes immediately. Although Rajesh was very busy during those days, he promised Hrishi da that you start the film and daily for few hours he will shoot for it, and thus Anand was completed in 25 days at stretch. Finally for Doctor’s role, Hrishi Da decided that no established actor will allot the days immediately, so he cast a new actor Amitabh Bachchan. So this film is remembered for Rajesh Khanna’s life best role and very sober performance by Amitabh, which was his first stepping stone in Bollywood.
4 Sholay : directed by Ramesh Sippy. It is very hard to imagine that to find a hindi film viewer who has not seen this cult film, which is considered as the best ever film made in Bollywood. There were 4 male lead characters which were portrayed by Dharmendra ( Veeru), Amitabh Bachchan (Jai), Sanjeev Kumar (Thakur) and Amjad Khan (Gabbar). Friends, do you know that who was director & writer’s initial choice for the role of Thakur, it was none other than the great actor Dilip Kumar, but he refused saying that what he will do among so many characters. So the role was offered to Sanjeev Kumar, and after watching the film, it was everyone’s opinion that the role suited him best and he lived that role. Secondly the role of Gabbar was supposed to be performed by Danny, and when the film was ready to go on floor for shooting, Danny had already committed his dates for going to Afghanistan for the shooting of Feroz Khan’s Dharmatma. Then write duo Salim Javed suggested the name of Amzad Khan, and rest is history. Now you can not imagine Sholay without Gabbar played by Amzad Khan.
5 Lagaan : the idea of Lagaan was developed by Aushutosh Gowarikar and he took the same to Aamir Khan, who liked the idea but requested him to work further on it. After 6 months with revised script he went to Aamir again, he liked the script and asked Aushutosh who is going to produce this film, and he had no answer and told Aamir to produce the same, for which Aamir was non committal, and Aamir had one more doubt how his fan will react when they see him in the role of villager. So Aushutosh took the script to Shahrukh Khan, who after hearing the script showed his eagerness to act and produce the film, at that time Shah Rukh Khan has started his production company in partnership with Juhi Chawla, and asked for some time. When after one year nothing happened, Aushutosh become restless, as there was no written commitment by Shah Rukh, he once again took the final script to Aamir, who after reading the final script and pondering over for 2 days told Aushutosh that he is ready to produce this film and act in it. Aamir floated his banner ‘Aamir Khan Productions’, and for next 3 years he gave his heart and soul for Lagaan as producer and even actor. You know what was the end result, this film is considered as one of the top hindi film ever made. After the release everyone thought the role was meant only for Aamir, and you could not even imagine how Shah Rukh could have done justice to this role. So it was Aamir’s luck that role came back to him.
There are many more such incidents, which will be in my next weekend blog.
Awaiting your views/comments/feed backs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
24th Jan 2020