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WriteIn

It’s been a wonderfully successful silver jubilee innings in showbiz for Subhash Ghai. And for the showman the show still goes on.
In a rare trip down memory lane he zeroes in on moments that made for memorable hits like Kalicharan, Vidhaata, Pardes and Taal and for the first time talks about his latest film, Yaadein.

Cinema is an enduring passion with Subhash Ghai. It endured six years of heart-breaking struggle. Six disappointing years when he had to be content with bit roles in easily forgettable films like Umang, Bharat Ke Shaheed, Do Bachche Dus Haath, Grahan, Dhamki and Natak. He even worked in a Punjabi film, Sherni with Radha Saluja and a sex film with Reena Roy, Gumrah. His best known film from his acting days was Aradhana in which he played the pilot friend of Rajesh Khanna who along with him and Dheeraj Kumar had won the Filmfare Talent Contest. Aradhana turned Khanna into an overnight superstar, Subhash watched from the sidelines and wondered where he had gone wrong. Finally, after six years of unending frustrations he admitted to himself that he’d never become a star and joined LV Prasad’s team of writers. Soon he was writing his own stories and within nine months had sold four of them. Encouraged, he started work on a cop caper, Kalicharan. Several leading producers gave it the thumbs down till NN Sippy heard it, liked it and surprised Subhash by entrusting him with the responsibility of directing it. The film made box-office history and the rest, as they say, is history.

A quarter of a century has passed since. But for showman Subhash Ghai the show still goes on. He’s busy with the shooting and editing of the Hrithik-Kareena starrer, Yaadein. He’s busy supervising Rahul, another film that Prakash Jha is directing for his banner, Mukta Arts that went public last year and was oversubscribed two-and-a-half-times over. He’s busy planning an acting academy so he can share the wealth of his wisdom with starry-eyed aspirants and train them for the future. He’s busy with a hundred different things before flying out of the city the next morning. We have to wait till past 10 p.m. before Subahsh Ghai can take a trip down memory lane, and as the clock creeps towards Cinderella hour, the dream-merchant in a not-often-found confessional mood talks about some of the moments that made for memorable hits in a career spanning 25 years and over a dozen jubilees.

Kalicharan was a surprise hit
Vidhaata wouldn’t have worked without Dilip Kumar
Vishwanath was shot without a script
Karz was the beginning of my romance with musicals
Hero stood up to Amitabh Bachchan’s Coolie
Meri JUNG put Anil Kapoor amongst the front-runners
Karma brought the audience back to the theatres
Ram Lakhan launched Madhuri Dixit as a star
Saudagar was completed in 11 months
Khalnayak was conceived for Nana Patekar
Trimurti was my failure as a producer
Pardes wasn’t a conventional love story
Taal was made as a challenge
YAADEIN is inspired by photographs

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