THE DECISIONS TAKEN BY DILIP KUMAR WHICH CHANGED THE DESTINIES OF SOME

Ali Peter John

It is amazing how a young man who once worked as a manager in the military canteen in Poona went on to capture the hearts,minds and the imagination of an entire nation, two nations and even the world and from Mohammad Yusuf Khan, became a legend who has been one of the most striking legends of this century….

Dilip Kumar has done around eighty-four films in his entire career when other actors of today like Jeetendra, Anupam Kher and Govinda among others take pride in doing more than five hundred films in less than forty years. It is content and quality that has mattered to him more than the money he has made or the property or the cars he has lined up in his garage. He has never shot on any foreign locations for any of his films because none of his films demanded it and the only time he went abroad in connection with his work was for the technicolour work of Mehboob Khan’s “Aan “.He has never charged any of his producers more than fifteen lakh of rupees and has always taken his acting fees in instalements of one and two lakhs of rupees .In fact, Subhash Ghai was bewildered when he signed him for the first time for his own film”Saudagar ” and the great Dilip Kumar asked him to pay him in small instalments of a lakh of rupees. He has never asked for his clothes to be designed by fancy outfitters, but has always gone for his own ordinary “masters ” and tailors,mostly from Bandra and the same went for his shoes. The only thing he has been very choosy and particular about is his food and if the unit he is shooting for cannot provide him and the others working with him with good food, he has made arrangements to bring food from his own house…..

What do I say about a man who was a miracle and who worked miracles in the lives of other men and women ? Let me talk about some men whose lives he changed, some big name whose names he added lustre to with just one gesture of his….

The pioneer of Indian cinema, Dr V.Shantaram
was planning to make his most ambitious film, “Do Aankhen Baarah Haath “and had decided that Dilip Kumar would head the cast and play the jailor .The actor didn’t reach Rajkamal Studio on the morning the shooting was to start and the very upset filmmaker decided to play the role himself and the rest is history and Dr Shantaram was an actor, thanks to Dilip Kumar.

Guru Dutt who was discovered by Dev Anand and had made a couple of films for him was planning his own film “Pyaasa”and he too had Dilip Kumar in mind for the role of Vijay , the poet.The story goes that the tragedy king had liked the role but for reasons best known to him did not report for the shooting on the first day and Guru Dutt also like Dr Shantaram decided to play the role of Vijay himself. When “Pyaasa”and Guru Dutt both became hugely successful ,Dilip Kumar was the first among many in the industry to congratulate Guru Dutt .

Mehboob Khan had made “Andaaz”with Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Nargis and it was a big hit .Raj Kapoor who had established himself as a filmmaker wanted to cast himself with Dilip Kumar in his new film, “Sangam”but Dilip Kumar did not see enough reason to repeat the “Andaaz”team and Raj Kapoor decided to cast his friend ,Rajendra Kumar as Gopal in “Sangam “with Vyjayanthimala ,thus forming the “Sangam”which has now become immortal in Hindi cinema .

Taking about Rajendra Kumar, he seemed to have a Dilip Kumar complex and when Dilip Kumar played a dacoit in “Ganga Jamuna “,he too followed it with the role of a dacoit in his brother-in-law O.P.Ralhan’s “Gehra Daag “,which was also a hit .

Years later, Dr B.R.Chopra talked about making a film about old parents who are neglected by their children and he had only Dilip Kumar and Raakhee in mind as the elderly parents .He waited for Dilip Kumar to agree to play the role for twelve year but the actor kept him waiting and Dr Chopra got very sick and his son Ravi Chopra made
” Baaghbaan “based on this father’s subject,with Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini. Dilip Kumar made his debut as a director in 1991 with “Kalinga”with himself in the title role as a retired judge. The film has still to be released .

At around the same time, a Telugu film called “Shankarabharanm” has swept across the country. It was the unusual love story between a musical guru in his sixties and his young and beautiful disciple. The guru was played by an unknown actor called S.Y. Somayajulu and a junior artist .The actor went on to win a National Award and so did the actress in the film directed by the multiple award winning director
K. Vishwanath.The makers wanted to make it in Hindi and the first name they thought of was Dilip Kumar. They had several screenings for him, but he finally said that he couldn’t do the film.Sanjeev Kumar was the next choice,on the recommendation of Dilip Kumar and the makers had to finally settle for Girish Karnad and Jayaprada. Compromise was like poison and the film ,”Sur Sargam ” couldn’t run even for three days, inspite of great music by Laxmikant–Pyarelal.

Amrish Puri was always grateful to the thespian for recommending him for the best role of his career in”Virasat”,Which was first offered to Dilip Kumar. The role in “DDLJ”is also said to have been written keeping Dilip Kumar in mind .

In the nineties Yash Chopra a fan of Dilip Kumar had worked on his own script of an elderly father keeping Dilip Kumar as the central character, but when Dilip Kumar was not willing ,the role went to Anupam Kher and he played the father of Rajesh Khanna and Rishi Kapoor and the husband of Hema Malini in “Vijay”. Anupam also played two other roles which were to be originally played by Dilip Kumar .

The wheel seemed to come full circle when Subhash Ghai ,a die-hard fan and admirer of Dilip Kumar who came to films because of Dilip Kumar, like Manoj Kumar and Dharmendra decided to make ” Karma” which was a modern version of Dr V.Shantaram’s
“Do Aankhen Baarah Haath”and cast Dilip Kumar in the role he couldn’t play more than sixty years ago ,with Naseeruddin Shah ,Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff among others playing the prisoners out to be reformed by Dilip Kumar.

What is that power called destiny or call it karma ?

WHY YUSUF KHAN (DILIP KUMAR) WILL ALWAYS BE TALLER THAN ANY OTHER KHAN OR KUMAR OF TODAY

My friend Kulbhushan Gupta who was a journalist who turned producer and had made films like “God And Gun”with Raaj Kumar and Jackie Shroff , “Pradesi Babu “with Govinda and “Police Force”with Akshay Kumar had one big dream and that was to make a film with Dilip Kumar.He had a chance meeting with the legend in a hotel in Ooty where he told the legend about his dream and narrated a story to him which the legend liked and asked Kulbhushan to go ahead and plan the making of the film.Kulbhushan hesitated to ask him for his remuneration and when he did , the legend just placed his hand on Kulbhushan’s shoulder and said,”kaam toh shuru karo , paise ki baat toh tab hogi”

Kulbhushan made inquiries about how much money the legend was paid for a film and he was shocked when he was told that the legend charged only around fifteen lakhs to do an entire film.Kulbhushan asked me to fix up a meeting for him with the legend

We met the legend in his house and he took us out in his Mercedes and we started talking about other things and Kulbhushan was anxious to pay him the fifteen lakhs of rupees he had brought with him in a bag . He kept making signs to me which said that he wanted to hand over the bag of money to the legend .I finally requested the legend to accept the money and he said ,”itni jaldi bhi kya hai ?”and I told Kulbhushan to hand over the bag of money to him.He casually took the bag and gave it to his driver Kutty and told him “ye dickey mein dal do aur shaam ko memsahab ko de dena”.Not once did he ask how much money was in the bag , but he was only intrested in knowing who the writer of the film would be and who the director would be.That afternoon I realised how much the legend cared for good work and how little he talk about money .

I was in Mahabaleshwar where Subhash Ghai was shooting for “Saudagar”with the legend and Raaj Kumar . During the lunch break ,I asked Ghai how much money he had paid Dilip Kumar and Ghai said, “he has never talked any money .He has only asked me for a lakh or two or even a few thousand rupees whenever he needs the money.I don’t even have to worry about his daily expenses and the money to be paid to his staff . On the contrary ,he has asked me how he could help me during the shooting “.

A well known producer from the south Mr.R.Venkatram was making a big film called “Aag Ka Darya”with the legend, Rekha and young stars like Rajeev Kapoor , Padmini Kolhapure , Amrita Singh and Amrish Puri who was a new villain at that time . The film was being directed by S.V.Rajendra Singh Babu ,a better known maker of Kannada films. The making of the film got delayed time and again and the producer couldn’t arrange money and had reached a stage when he could have gone bankrupt , but it was the legend who not only came to his help , but also gave him a place to live in his own bungalow where his younger brother Ahsan Khan , the producer of “Ganga Jamuna” lived all alone.The legend made sure that the film was completed , but the producer had many more financial problems and the film which had two of the finest performances by the legend and Rekha was not released the way it should have .

Two brothers from Kanpur who were leading names in the leather business , Mushir and Riaz had come to films only because of their love and admiration for the actor called Dilip Kumar.They produced films like “Bairaag”(the only film with Dilip Kumar in a triple role ) and “Shakti “with their idol, but they too told me stories about how the legend never talked to them about his price or anything to do with money and even told them to pay him whatever they liked.

The only times the legend made some exceptions to his unwritten rule about money was when he did some films like “Dharmadhikari”
towards the end of his long career .

The legend has only done around eighty five films in more than sixty years when even an actor like Govinda and a character actor like Anupam Kher have done over five hundred films in the thirty years of their career . All the Khans and Kumars and even the tallest of them all , Amitabh Bachchan talk about the crores they charge for a film.And to think about it , even the team of writers Salim-Javed boasted of charging more than any star and even the legend for whom the only priceless thing was the films he worked in and his role in them.

Dev Anand once told me that Yusuf (that is how he and Raj Kapoor referred to him ), Raj and himself never did more than five films in a year at any time and never let their prices be more important than the films they were doing.

Ek woh bhi zamaana tha , aur ek aaj ka zamaana hai jab sirf aur sirf paisa bolta hai , baki sab gaya or jaata rahegaa