Far away and long ago, the journey began. Today it is 50 years. A journey which traversed many lands, crossed many seas, where there were failures which met with success, a battle between life and death, but in the end life ultimately won. A sea of bankruptcy which was ready to drown him but his undying spirit to fight all odds finally made him swim out of that whirlpool and turned a minus into a triple plus.
I still remember it took me one year of travelling all the streets of Bombay to narrate my story of Kaalia to Amitabh Bachchan, which finally happened on the sets of Don when there was a break during a cemetery scene.
Amitabh said, “Today you can narrate the script but do it in a hurry.”
So, I sat down and narrated my entire script to him. After I finished narrating it, I had so much confidence in my script that I told him, “I'm sure you have liked my story.”
He asked me, “How do you know?”
So, I said before coming here and the last one year, I've been meeting a lot of people who have narrated scripts to you and you have rejected them. They told me rejection comes when Amitabh looks into the sky and starts playing with his hair during the narration. So I said I was happy that while I was narrating the entire script to you not once that you looked up into the sky, hence. He started laughing. He was surprised with my confidence because I hadn't directed a single film until then. He said go and meet my brother and discuss details and tell him that I have liked the script. That's how Kaalia started. It was the biggest medal I had received.
During its shooting one day, I was sitting with Amitabh and having some conversation when my costume guy came and said, ‘this dress is ready.’ I told him to ‘give it to Amit ji’. Amitabh heard me calling him Amit ji and the first thing he said to me was, ‘Stop, I'm not Amit ji to you. Do not call me Amit ji.’ I said, ‘No, I'm addressing the costume guy, so obviously when I speak to him about you, I'll add a ji.’ He said, ‘No, not even then.’ So, I have never ever called him Amit ji till today.
These are the things that make him unique and stand alone. I don't think there's anyone like him in the industry who has seen so many ups and downs. He has to be unique. He has God's hand over his head.
His discipline and his undying spirit of facing failures and then fighting it with success is what make him special. It has been with him since the very beginning when he became a popular actor. He met with six failures, all his films flopped after Anand and he was ready to go back home. He had only one film in hand and that was Zanjeer which brought him back in the scene so I don't think he ever gives up. During his bankruptcy, I made Major Saab with him and being the producer I could see his undying spirit to work in the film. I wish everyone who meets with failure would make him a role model to emerge victorious.
No wonder he is known today and has always been acknowledged as ‘The Shahenshah.’ But to me he will always be ‘the Shahenshahon ka Shahenshah.’
-As told to Shrishti Negi
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