Chhaayaageet #1 - "Just give it a try. If you can't then we'll pack up."
The star actor is on the studio lot where an expensive elaborate set has been put up for a romantic song. They get through shooting the first stanza with various cuts, when news comes that the actor’s wife, also an actress, is taken gravely ill on her location.
He interrupts his song shoot to rush by her side and brings her back to Bombay. Treatment and care ensue but she does not survive. He is devastated and goes into depression.
Meanwhile the producer and director have left the expensive set standing. But it’s been many weeks now.
One day the director goes to the actor’s house and practically drags him to the set. We will shoot the one remaining stanza of the song in one continuous shot and that will be it.
I don’t think I can do it, he says, trembling and shaking.
It is a romantic number.
Just give it a try, the director says, if you can’t then we’ll pack up.
He relents. It’s one continuous shot. It’s a perfect take.
The director wants one more take, just in case.
In the past he would throw a fit at a second take. Everyone is bracing for the storm. But he sighs and relents.
Another take, another long continuous shot. The second stanza plays.
It’s a perfect take. The star is back.
Music: RD Burman
Singer: Mohammad Rafi
*ing: Shammi Kapoor
Director: Vijay Anand
Producer: Nassir Husssein
Film: Teesri Manzil (1966)