Weekend

In today’s weekend blog, I am writing about a Bollywood film which was released about 32 years back. It was one of those rare film in 1988 which was  far away from the action film of that era, and can be considered as one of the film which brought the audience back to theatre.  This film  was also considered as one the film which brought back soft  music back in the market, the songs were composed by relatively new music director duo, and male & female lead singers were also  quite new in Bollywood, and except for seasoned lyricist and producer, everyone else connected with this film was a new comer. It was first film of a director, and although it was 2^nd film for both male & female lead actors, they became famous after this film only, even the artist who were playing the supporting roles were also not very well known. There was nothing new in the story of the film, a boy and girl from two feuding families fall in love and they elope. This type of story must have been used by many film earlier, but this film when released was like a breath of fresh air during the stale air days. The film I am referring to is “ Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak” which was produced by veteran producer/director Nasir Hussain, directed by his son Mansoor Khan. In the main lead were Aamir Khan (nephew of Nasir Hussain) and Juhi Chawla. Music was composed by brother duo Anand & Milind ( sons of veteran music composer Chitragupt). The lead singers were Udit Narayan & Alka Yagnik. The film was one of the biggest hits of 1988 and after the release of this film career of both Aamir Khan & Juhi Chawla got a new lease of life and they were considered as brightest new talents.

I am giving below the  some unknown facts of this film :

1. Before 1988, Producer/Director Nasir Hussain’s last 3-4 films did not perform quite well at the box office. With this film he wanted to experiment and thought of making film with newcomers, and instead going with his usual story of lost/found formula he tried some thing different.
2. After Nasir Hussain finished the story and scripting, he fell ill and had to go in for surgery, was not in position to take the burden of directing the film, so he asked his son Mansoor Khan to direct the film. Mansoor afterwards made some changes in the script and the rest as we know, is history.
3. The film was earlier titled Nafrat Ke Waris. However Nasir Hussain did not like the title, as he found it was too negative. The team later called it Darrar and it became another working title for the film. One fine day Nasir told his team the film’s title will be “Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak”, every one was impressed with the title and it was finalised. After the film was released, as the title was quite long, people started calling it QSQT.
4. Nasir Hussain did not quite like the idea of tragic ending of QSQT. He even spoke about it to both Mansoor and Aamir that they should shoot a happy ending. And yes it was shot too, but we all know which one was chosen and which one was skipped.
5. Aamir’s entry sequence in QSQT was initially a very different one. The makers wanted to show him as pet lover. He was originally supposed to pet a snake when script was finalised. However Nasir dropped the entire idea and a different entry scene was shot for him.
6. Not many know but Aamir’s first wife and childhood sweetheart, Reema Dutta, makes a cameo in his iconic song ‘Papa Kehte Hain’. One day she dropped by to watch the shooting and it was film’s director Mansoor Khan impromptu idea make her small part of the song, as he found it adorable.
7. Apart from Aamir and Juhi, several other actors also started their journey with QSQT, and this includes Raj Zutshi, who played Aamir’s best friend in the film. Who would have thought that one day he will become Aamir’s brother in law ( he married Aamir’s sister). Raj Zutshi went on do  many more films, prominent among them were Daddy, Zinda, Lagaan and Kya Kool Hain Hum.
8. Not many know that the whole fad of having abbreviations for long titles, be it DDLJ (Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge), HAHK (Hum Aapke Hain Koun), K2H2 (Kabhi Khusl Kabhi Ghum ), KMG (Koi Mil Gaya) KNPH (Kaho Na Pyar Hai) began with QSQT. It was the first film that became more popular as QSQT.
9. Nasir Hussain had already decided to cast Aamir as Hero of QSQT, but he kept it as secret. Before the shooting started he requested Aamir to help in auditioning the actors for their respective parts in the film. Even Juhi Chawla had to auditioned for the role as heroine and after she was finalised, she asked Aamir who is the hero of the film, but he did not disclose and said it is some newcomer. So when on day 1 of the shooting Juhi reached the location and asked for who is hero, as that day’s scene which was to be shot required both hero and heroine, but no one answered. As Aamir was already present, she thought as he has taken her audition he is there to see her giving the shot, but later when shot was ready then she realised that Aamir is the hero of the film.

I hope friends, you must have liked the above information.

Awaiting your feed backs/comments/views.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

27^th Mar 2020.